Peaceful Heart FarmCast

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Raising goats to make your own cheese is a great goal. Today I’ll go over the basics of how to get started. Making the cheese is another topic for later. Let’s just start with what it takes to raise and care for the animals that make it happen.

First let me take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. As always, I appreciate you all so much. Thank you. There is no show without you.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Before I get started on today’s topic, just a very brief update on our animals. All of the animals are doing really, really well. No issues so far, even though we had that really deep cold snap. Fortunately, we did not have any lambs born during that time. That was my only concern. Right now, it looks like it will be February before we have lambs. It always takes longer than I think.

Lambs Lambs gestate for about five months. And the pregnant ewes end up looking like they are going to burst for days and days before the lambs actually arrive. You would think I would get used to it. I looked at one of our ewes a few days ago and thought to myself, “she’s going to have her lambs in the next couple of weeks.” Then I looked at her again yesterday and now I’m thinking it is going to be much later. This is the way of things when we leave the animals on their own for breeding.

Scott keeps really close eye on the cows because they come up to the milking shed every day. The sheep and goats stay out in the pasture, so knowing when they come into heat is just not feasible. Because we know the date that the breeding ram or buck goes in with the ewes and does, we know the earliest date that babies can be born. But after that, we just wing it and figure that all will be born within two months. That usually works. These animals are healthy and can be bred easily.

Cows We expect our first calf of 2023 the first week of March. The entire herd is all in one lump except for the two heifer calves that were born last year. They are too young to be bred and must be kept separate until we are ready for their breeding to commence. If I remember correctly, that will be some time in the summer. June, July or August. They will go in with the bull and have their first calf about the time they reach two years old.

Chickens The chickens are doing well. At least three of the four roosters did get a little bit of comb damage during that cold snap. We kept them locked in their coop so their combined warmth would help keep everyone warm. Unfortunately, our roosters have very large combs. Those are those big red things sticking up from the top of their heads. They are quite subject to frostbite. There is only a small bit of damage that I saw. Maybe a ¼ inch or less on the tip of one or two of the points.

So other than that, all is well with them.

Goats My young goat girls are doing fantastic. They are still quite small, but will enter the breeding cycle in less than a month. They also require five months of gestation for their kids. We will be looking for our first kids from them in the height of summer. July and August should brings us those cutest of cuteness, goat kids. Well, it’s kind of a toss up between the kids and the lambs. They are both just as cute as they can be when young.

Speaking of goats, how about some info on how you might get set up for raising your own goats?

Raising Goats I’m going to recount, to the best of my ability, the steps we took to prepare for raising goats. Then I will talk about some of the challenges. The rewards of owning and caring for goats far outweighs the challenges. Keep that in mind if you decide to go on the goat journey.

Getting Set Up As you are making your plans for bringing goats into your life, the second highest priority is deciding how you will contain them. I’m going to say with near complete certainty that no matter how well you plan this and prepare for it, your goats will escape. Why do I say that? Because they are goats. It’s what they do.

What Do Goats Eat? The first priority is deciding how you will feed them? Grazing is always the first choice here, but there are times when feeding a little grain is useful. And then there are nutritional supplements to be considered. Today it is popular to think that we are going completely back to nature and they can just live on grass. That is a fallacy in today’s world. Domesticated animals have been bred for generations to be cared for and so we must continue this practice. Our soils are depleted and the grasses that grow no longer have all of the required nutrition for healthy animals.

You will need to give them mineral supplements. You will need to manage their pastures. And sometimes, as much as you may try to prevent it, you will need to use modern medicine to save the life of your animals. These are skills you will build over time and I’ll try to cover the basics a little later.

Grass vs Browse There are many types of grasses such as orchardgrass, crabgrass, fescue and so on, and your goats will eat them. However, they prefer what is called browse for well over half of their daily diet. What is browse you say? It’s brush, small deciduous trees like those small pines intruding at the edge of your pasture, and small saplings. They love things with thorns like briars, brambles and small black locust trees. They like wild roses and wild blackberry plants, also thorny. Then there are what we normally call weeds that they love. Things like pigweed, various kinds of docks, plantain and lambs quarters. The pigweed and yellowdock have deep roots and are hard to get rid of like dandelion. Plantain and lambs quarters grow wild all over the pasture and are great goat food, while we spend hours trying to get them out of our gardens before they take over.

So, keep that in mind when deciding what your goats might eat.

Grain What about grain? We personally don’t use a lot of grain with our goats, or the sheep for that matter. But there are uses for it. In the commercial world, young lambs and goat kids are fed what is called “creep feed”. It is used to get their weight up so they can be weaned off of mother’s milk at an earlier age and remain healthy. As far as I can tell, its purpose is to get animals to market quicker and at less cost. Neither of these goals are our goals, so we don’t use creep feed.

We do use grain for other reasons. The number one reason is the health of a doe about to give birth as well as her kids. Where we live, the soil is depleted of selenium. You will need to check your area to see if this is the case where you will be raising your goats. Selenium is vital for the health of your animals.

White Muscle Disease In the beginning, we used to have kids just disappear after a week or so. Our first goats were really wild and we couldn’t even catch them. They had their kids out on the pasture and we let the does take care of the kids without any intervention. We assumed that predators were getting these little guys. Then one day I caught one of the week-old kids not able to get up and stay standing up. I quickly drug out the book on goat health that I had on my shelf and discovered the problem.

It's called white muscle disease and it is a result of too little selenium. In our case, the kids would not have enough selenium and quickly became too weak to stand. The kids are very clever at hiding and that is why they just seemed to disappear without a trace. I found one once hiding under a small pile of wood and once in the trunk of a tree. They are small and very easy to miss. Anyway,

White muscle disease is quite easy to remedy if you catch it quickly. A bolus of selenium and vitamin E and the kid is back on its feet within hours. But the better treatment is the preventative treatment. We feed our does just a bit of grain containing selenium supplement every day beginning about two weeks before we estimate they will give birth and then for about a week after. That ensures that mom has the selenium she needs and is passing it on to her kid via her milk. This completely eliminated losing kids to white muscle disease.

Goat Taming The second reason we use a little bit of grain is to tame the goats. Right now my two baby girls will follow me anywhere. I can even pet Lian and she doesn’t run away. Admittedly, I do have to wait for her to come up to me. If I try to walk up to her in the pasture, she might walk away if she doesn’t see me with a bowl in hand. It is a very small amount, less than a cup between the two of them, and not every day. I’m loving the friendliness that I have not had in the past.

Just a quick note. Our first goats were purchased while we were still traveling back and forth from Virginia to South Carolina and back every single week. I didn’t have the time to spend with my goats that I have now. And they were wild. We could not get within 50 feet of them. It was a real learning curve to get them into the corral. The tasks was accomplished but not without frustration.

Travel Lanes Scott has built the useful system of fences to move animals from one large area to another. We call them travel lanes. These were so useful in herding the goats. If we could get them into a travel lane, we could move them to a smaller and smaller area until we could catch them up to check on their health. One, we called her Julie Jumper, could escape even this arrangement. It was nearly a year before we were able to give her a health check. Every time we would corral them, she would jump over the five or six-foot fence. It took Scott building that fence up to 10 feet high to keep her contained. It was a small area, so it wasn’t like we had to redo all of our fences. Just those in the corral.

So, grain feeding for taming it a great thing. You want to be able to catch them up to check for general gut health and hoof health.

Ok, enough about grain. Let’s get to creating the most nutritious pasture for your goats.

Rotational Grazing We set up a rotational grazing system. This system is the best way to maintain their health with minimal intervention with things like worming chemicals. I’ll talk more about worms in a minute. Rotational grazing is also the best way to maintain your pasture. Maintaining pasture is essential for having good foraging and grazing for your goats. You want them to have lots of good grass and browse to maintain their weight and for nutritional support.

How much pasture you require will depend on where you live. In Texas and Oklahoma, you will need more acreage per animal than we require here in Virginia. If you have questions in that regard, email me and I’ll try to give you resources to find out what is best for your part of the world.

Basic rotational grazing for us was setting up a perimeter fence around all of the pastures and then creating smaller paddocks within those larger areas. You will want to set it up so that each paddock will have no goats for a couple of months. This has to do with letting the pastures regrow as well as keeping the parasite load under control. That means those pesky worms I mentioned earlier.

Fencing There are a couple of different approaches you can take with fencing. One, a permanent fence system. Two, an electric fence system. In my humble opinion, option two still needs a permanent fence perimeter. What do I mean by that?

Permanent Fence As I mentioned, the goats will get out. Even with a “permanent” fence, they will find a way out eventually. You will want to be able to catch them up quickly so be ready for that. But here again, prevention is best. We can’t have them getting injured by getting out in the road. And we can’t have them damaging the neighbor’s property. A good strong perimeter fence is your best insurance for managing this risk.

Permanent fence needs to be designed specifically for goats. The wires nearer the bottom are closer together so the smaller kids are contained. I’ve seen our full-grown goat girls get through a fence wire that was barely 6” square. I can’t remember her name, but any time of the day we might find her grazing outside of the perimeter fence. Thankfully, they are herd animals and she never went far from the rest of the herd. Later she would be back inside just going on about her business.

Taller is better. Most goats like to jump and some can jump really high – Julie Jumper was as pro. Keep it close to the ground. If the land is not level and uneven, be aware of gaps at the bottom as you move across terrain. We use two strands of barbed wire at the top for extra height and deterrence from jumping.

As far as the dividers between paddocks, this is where electric fence is an option. We chose permanent fence here as well, but it is not absolutely necessary.

Electric Fence The advantage of electric fence that is commonly used for all sorts of pastured animals is the ease of moving it. In the spring there will be lots of grass and browse, therefore, you may keep them in a smaller area to make sure they eat everything before moving on to the next paddock. Later in the summer, they may require a larger area for the same amount of time grazing as the grass is not as tall and definitely not growing as fast. Being able to vary the size of the paddock is easily accomplished with electric netting. It facilitates a more regular schedule for you.

Again, we chose permanent fencing so our trade-off is that sometimes they might be in an area for a week and other times as much as two or three weeks if the grass is strong. It’s a little different way of thinking about it than just automatically moving them every few days or every week or however much time you decide is optimal between rotations. We move on their schedule. Electric wire lets you move on your schedule.

Source of Electricity Things to consider with electric fencing is whether you have electricity available close to your pasture, or are you going to use a solar charger to keep the electric fence hot. While a hard wire is more reliable, it’s not that practical unless you have only a few goats that basically in your back yard. If you have more extensive pasture, then solar becomes almost a requirement. The solar unit moves with the fence.

You can also use a marine battery that will move with the fence. All things to consider in planning your system. Plus, these are great conversations with your spouse. I love our dream building conversations probably more than anything else we do together. That’s just me. I’m not sure Scott would rate the conversations that high, but he does like spending time with me. So, there is that.

Housing Sheep will stay outside in the worst of weather. Goats do like a bit of cover from the worst of it. Though it is not absolutely essential, it is recommended. Of course, how elaborate will depend on your individual situation. They really don’t require a lot of space and will bunch together and snuggle each other.

We have a calf hutch and a couple of dog igloos. Some people build wooden structures including a space where hay can be stored close by for use in the winter. A simple lean-to or covered area with open sides are also options. Just a little something they can get under when the rain comes down hard.

Supplements and Disease Management A couple of last things to consider in your planning is how will you supplement their minerals. This is a requirement. They must have access to free-choice minerals. Options here include a simple system of buying a pre-mixed, all-purpose mineral or going the more elaborate route. There are systems were you can buy each mineral individually and keep them stocked in their own box. The animals choose how much of each mineral that they want to consume. The prepackaged minerals leave less choice, but are balanced for the average needs of a goat. It must be goat minerals. They need copper more than other animals. Minerals made specifically for goats will address that need.

Wormer As far as disease management, there are a few things that you should have on hand. First, a good worming medication. While you may not want or need to use these chemicals, there will be times when it might save the life of one of your animals.

Hoof Trimmers Hoof trimmers are essential for most goat breeds. If you don’t keep them trimmed, you are going to see your goats limping around every time it rains. It is an easy and necessary skill to learn. We got Kiko goats to minimize the need, but I have no doubt that it will be a need from time to time.

Final Thoughts There is so much more to know, but I am going to leave it here for today. How will you feed them? How will you contain them? How will you house them? How will you care for their physical health? These are the main areas to consider first. Building the physical structures will be led by the decisions you make after having these discussions and thought exercises. Let me know if you have questions.

As always, our Locals subscribers have direct access to us. And you can always drop me an email if you have specific questions. Again, I covered only the very basic thoughts to consider. There is so much more. And should you decide to embark on this journey, I believe it is one that you will have a blast learning about with your family. Jump in with both feet and enjoy the experience. There is nothing like raising and caring for your own animals.

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Have I mentioned that knitting is my favorite winter activity? Things have slowed down and I can have some time to catch up on my knitting projects. The garden has been put to bed. I’m still making cheese, butter and yogurt, but canning is done for the season. I have even gotten all the frozen fruit out of the freezer from this past spring and made the promised cherry and blueberry jams. For the first time, I made brandied figs. This and so much more coming up in this podcast episode. But first . . .

Welcome to all the new listeners and a hearty holiday season welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you all so much. Let’s get on with some homestead updates.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let’s talk about the animals first. We love all of our animals. What would our homestead be without our animals? Pretty boring, don’t you think?

Cows Finally, we have good news on the bovine front. We believe that all of the cows are now bred. Glory Be to God. Natural breeding is superior by far. We have one calf scheduled for birth on March 5th 2023. Then the next two will be around the 16th of July. Then the bull comes along and we have six that will give birth between August 4th and September 4th. Here is the run down.

Princess Princess is a lovely purebred A2A2 Jersey heifer, soon to be cow, giving birth to that first calf around the 5th of March. We used sexed AI semen for her so her calf will be 50% Jersey and 50% Normande and likely a girl, a heifer. She looks great and we are anticipating great genetics in her calf.

She is small and so is her mom. Not quite miniature Jerseys, but close. Rosie is her mom and in her first lactation cycle she was giving us about three gallons of milk per day. We will expect a similar amount from Princess. We plan on selling her in the future as we move to a 100% registered Normande herd. Keep your ears open about when she comes up for sale as she will make a fantastic milk cow for some lucky family.

Rosie Speaking of Rosie, she is in the second group of two giving birth in near the middle of July. Rosie is also a registered A2A2 Jersey. She was bred via AI to the bull Fullblood French bull Jacaranda. The semen was unsexed so the gender of her calf will be a surprise. This calf will also be 50% Jersey and 50% Normande. We will be keeping heifer calves that are 50% Normande, but like her daughter, Rosie will come up for sale sometime in the near future.

Ginger Ginger is the second animal giving birth in mid-July. She is 75% percent Normande. That means she is not recognized as purebred, but her offspring will be as their percentage will be high enough to meet the minimum standard. The sire is also the Fullblood French bull Jacaranda.

Ferdinand’s Offspring The last group of six are all bred via Ferdinand. You will recall that he is the Guernsey bull that we purchased a couple of months ago. He did his job well. In one month, two hormonal cycles, he has impregnated all of our remaining cows and heifers. At least it appears so as of this recording.

I’m not sure if we will be able to registered his offspring as 50% Normande. I’ll have to check on that. Violet, Virginia and Wanda are all purebred Normandes but it may not be enough for proper registration. We shall see.

Butter is a registered A2A2 Jersey. And the last two, Molly and Cookie are mostly but not registered Jersey cows. Though they are also A2A2. We will be keeping Molly as she does have 25% Normande genetics, but Butter and Cookie will also be moving on to another family.

In the end, four of our cows will be up for sale in the next year or two. They are all great animals, but again, we are building a 100% Normande herd. Each year we will probably move out a couple more as we slowly inch toward our preferred genetic goals.

Nickel We have Nickel waiting in the wings to get big enough to be our breeding bull. Ferdinand will have one more round of breeding our cows and then we will also sell him. As you can tell, he is a great bull and will be a wonderful addition to someone’s herd. After that, Nickel will be our herd bull for a couple of years. And we will continue using AI as we can to improve the herd genetics. Scott is coming on board as our primary AI technician.

Scott’s AI Training This is a really great piece of news that I have to share. I mentioned in the last podcst that the idea was for Scott to be able attend an AI workshop and learn to do the procedure himself. Hallelujah, he was able to attend an AI tech training session just a couple of weeks ago. It was literally only an hour away and we made it happen so he could attend. He now knows the basics of how it is done and what challenges he may face. And we have lots of cows for him to practice on as he builds his skill.

The first day he came home a little frustrated with his lack of skill. According to him, it is much harder than it looks from the outside. On the second day of the training session, he got the hang of it and all that is left now is for him to practice.

The very next time that any of our cows get bred, Scott will be trying out his new skills. That is months and months from now but we are both excited about the prospects of being able to use AI much more effectively. We will share how that goes when we get there. The timing of this training session was truly a Blessing from God.

Mack, Finn and Charlotte Now on to the livestock guardian dogs. There is not much to say here. I am still feeling so blessed that Finn returned after six months of roaming the countryside. We are still treating an infection in his left eye. It is a stubborn infection. Sometimes his eye is clear and then it will cloud up again. Just today we aggressively upped the amount of antibiotic cream we are using in that eye to see if we can knock out that infection once and for all. Otherwise, he is putting on weight and is very happy to be home. There was an early escape and one a day or so ago that was my fault for letting him loose with an open gate, but he is still with us.

Charlotte is going along just fine. Sometimes she tolerates me petting her and sometimes still she won’t let me near her. I just go along and pet her when I can. She is a great dog and I love her so much.

Both Finn and Charlotte are currently with the sheep and the goat doelings. There are a couple of calves in there as well. I forgot to talk about Jill and Penny. Jill is currently up for sale if you know of anyone looking for a young heifer calf. We will be keeping Penny. She is 50% Jersey and 50% Normande. All is well in that pasture for the moment.

Mack is with the cows. They don’t really need him, but what else are we going to do with him. At some point, I would like to see all of the dogs and animals together. I’m not sure that will ever happen. We will always have heifer calves that need to be kept away from the bull and/or vise versa, but bull is kept away from the cows/heifer calves. And then there are ewe lambs and doelings that need to be kept away from the breeding ram and buck. I’m pretty sure we will always have two groups of animals. The best I can hope for is that all the of animals and dogs will eventually become interchangeable. At the moment I don’t trust the large animals with Finn and Charlotte and I don’t trust the small animals with Mack. So, there you have it. This may be our standard operating procedure going forward. I’ll keep you posted.

Kiko Goats Now for a little update on the goats. Things are going fairly well in that area. I have managed to tame all of the goats a fair bit. They will follow me anywhere if they think there might be a treat at the end of the road. All are growing nicely. It will be another two months before the girls can meet up with the boy.

Lian and Amys are with the sheep and Rhuarc is right next door in the lower garden with a ram lamb as a companion. As soon as the girls are old enough, these two boys will be able to join the main group of sheep and goat girls.

Sheep Several ewes are looking quite plump. I expect that we will have lambs in January or February. Not the best time of year, but I have found that these Katahdin sheep are really good moms and the lambs are generally hardy even in winter. If the weather is particularly bad, we can take them to shelter. Otherwise, this breed is very used to giving birth out in the pasture, even in the winter.

I have heard of several breeders that specifically breed for birthing in January and February as they are looking for their lambs to reach market size by the time November rolls around and the various religious groups are looking for lamb and goat for their feasts. We may look at that market as well. Otherwise, we like to keep ours all the way up to the 12th month of growth. I’ll keep you posted, but the sheep have dogs protecting them at the moment and I expect that we will actually have lambs soon and that we will be able to raise them to market weight without predators running off with them. At least that is the current expectation.

Chickens The last animals to discuss are the chickens. Last time I mentioned that Mack had made mincemeat of one of the hens. We still have all of the rest of the hens and roosters. Just a few days ago, we added six new hens to the flock. One of our herd share members had more chickens than she wanted and she gifted us these hens. We are not sure whether they are Cinnamon queens or Rhode Island reds. Either way, they are providing us a couple more eggs a day.

Of the eleven others that we have, we were getting 2 or 3 eggs per day. We added half as many hens but doubled our egg production. Now we are getting 5 or 6 eggs per day. Go figure. I don’t know if I mentioned that I am looking at perhaps changing my mind of what breed of chickens that we raise. There are always good logical reasons for the breeds we choose for any given animal. However, the literature seems to be flawed on the chicken breeds I chose. I expected way more eggs from the American Bresse and Black Copper Marans. And it seems that the traditional Rhode Island reds are just better at producing eggs. I’ll have to look it up. It may be that they are primarily egg producers and not a dual breed chicken.

In the end, I may just give up on the whole dual breed idea for chickens. I’m really in it for the eggs. We just don’t eat that much chicken so the meat is not a really big deal. That’s for another day. In the spring we will do some incubations and hatch out some birds and see where we go from there. In the end, we may just have mutt chickens and forget about trying to raise specific breeds. Right now, as long as they lay lots of eggs, I don’t really care.

Creamery Let’s move on that huge creamery project. Where do we stand with that? All of the floors are complete. As I mentioned in the last podcast, Scott was racing the clock to get that done. The temperature-sensitive nature of the glue and grout were driving that carriage. He made it. There were a few cold days where he had to wait, but in the end, he got it done.

There are a few details he is working on for the pull box covers, but other than that, the floors are complete. Next up is the electrical. And of course, the plumbing. That is still looming large in my mind. I don’t know how he will do it, but I do know that he will make it happen. It’s just who he is as a person.

At the moment he is moving his attention to fixing fences in the back fields. There is a good bit of standing hay back there but trees on the fences need to be cleared and those fences repaired. Another task on his calendar is gathering up pine wood for the wood stove this winter. For the past two winters we have not used the wood stove as other priorities and factors interfered with the collecting of wood. This year should be the time that we get back on track with using wood for fuel in the winter and getting that electric bill back down to a reasonable cost. Especially at this time in our economy when prices are rising.

These tasks will take away from the time he has in the creamery. But I’m pretty sure we are still on track for USDA certification sometime in the spring or summer.

Knitting, Cheesemaking, and Other Milk Products I want to talk a little bit about cheesemaking and other milk products before getting into my knitting projects.

Cheesemaking Because we have had so much problem getting cows pregnant, we are currently planning to milk the cows as long as we can before drying them up for birthing their calves. Normally, that would be about a one-year cycle. This time, it’s going to be nearly a year-and-a-half. Their milk production will continue to decline over time. And the cold of winter will also decrease milk production. These are additional days of learning and having new trials of which we have yet to have.

Currently, the cows are still producing enough for herd share milk and for me to make cheese. I’m perfecting my techniques in cheesemaking and trying a couple of new ideas to improve flavor. We shall see in a few months if my efforts have paid off.

Additionally, I’m still making yogurt a couple of times per week and butter every other week or so. It’s a bit of a different winter experience to still be dealing with milk after the end of November, but it seems to be working out great for both Scott and myself. So far. I’m happy to continue the creative art of dealing with dairy products.

Knitting My favorite winter pastime is knitting. In the summer it’s all about the garden – planting, weeding, harvesting, canning and so on. But in the winter, things slow down and I get to take a break. What do I do with all that free time? Well, to be honest, there isn’t that much free time. I just do a lot of stuff that was put off because I was in the garden and in the kitchen for every hour of every day in the summer.

It's so funny that I have these knitting projects that sit for months on end without any progress whatsoever. Then winter comes and I can work on them. Do I get them finished? I guess it depends on the project.

Victorian Newborn Set Knitting Pattern The one I’m going to talk about today is a really beautiful baby layette. It has a blanket, bonnet, booties and sweater. I’ve been working on the blanket for some time. It is a Victorian themed pattern. Lacy edges and cream or off-white base color. The contrast color is burgundy. I’ll put a picture on the Locals platform and maybe I can work one in on the website. Perhaps I’ll make it the featured photo on this podcast. Yeah, that could work.

I started working on this at least two years ago. It is the most difficult project that I have ever done. First it was all about getting the pattern correct. I must have started over at least four times. That was the first year.

The second year (and when I speak of years, remember that it is a few months in the winter) – The second year, it was all about starting the lacy edge. I have taken out that part at least six times. It was late last winter when I discovered that the pattern I was trying to use was flawed.

Recreating the Pattern Here’s that little story. As I get older, it is harder for me to read small print. And the pattern that I was using was already a year or more old and the pages stuck together and the print was mangled. So, what did I do? Well, I searched on line to try and find a “clean” copy of that pattern. I did find one. It was great for the “rosebud pattern”. It is the main theme in all of the pieces. But when it came to putting the rest of the pieces together, that pattern was a disaster.

So, what do I do now? On the evening that I made the discovery that it was the pattern that was flawed and not my knitting skills, I set out to recreate the pattern from the original. And so I did. I spent about an hour in Microsoft Word. (Okay, it may have been more than an hour. At this point, I have no idea. I just know I needed the pattern to work.) I typed out every single instruction, every detail. Then I proof-read what I had typed. It all seemed to make sense. I still have the original just in case I made a mistake. I can go back with my magnifying glass and see if I can decipher what the actual instruction is supposed to be. However, I am pretty confident that I got it right. There is a pattern to patterns and I could see it clearly. After all, I had created it over and over again, incorrectly. So when I saw the correct instruction it made perfect sense.

My Greatest Achievement Now to my greatest achievement so far. I’ve never been successful in making joins look natural. My work has always looked sloppy. But not this time. As I got started once again on this new adventure, I could clearly see the pattern this time. I could clearly see that it was working. I finished the first end of the blanket using a stitch I had never done before. But the instructions were clear and it worked the very first time. Yippee!!

That’s not the greatest achievement. No the greatest achievement was picking up the stitches on the starting edge of that blanket. YouTube helped me out. I watched a couple of videos on how it is done. In the past I just did the best I could with the instructions which read “pick up and knit X number of stitches. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that there was an actual method to make it work smoothly. So, I watched these videos and gave their suggestions a try. Lo and behold, I created a seam that looks unbelievable. The top is just a continuation of the knitting. The bottom has to be created as if it is a continuation.

Finishing the First Piece of the Project I never knew I could do such good work. I can’t wait to start up the sides. I’ve already watched that video and I will watch it again before I start on the sides. First, I have to finish the bottom. And I have every confidence that I will make it look just as awesome as the top. Take a look at the picture to see what I am creating. This will be the most awesome knitting project I have ever done.

Did I mention it was the hardest thing I have ever attempted? It is going to give me confidence to make the other really complicated pieces. That sweater, hat and booties are waiting in the wings.

Now, in closing, I must mention that once I finish these difficult pieces that I already have in progress, I’m going to switch to making hat, scarf, mitten sets to give to the homeless. It’s going to be my new mission for quite some time. These are simpler projects, but with a great deal more purpose. I have all of this yarn and patterns for Afghans and such that I have collected over the years. If you are a knitter, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Large Afghans are a lot of work and, when finished, I can only give it to one person. For the same amount of time and yarn, I can make something useful for those in need, several somethings in fact. I don’t really know how many hats, mittens and scarves will come out of the vast amount of yarn in my closet. But I’m going to find out.

There you have it and that is the end of my knitting story for this podcast. Take a look at the pictures of my current project on our Locals platform. That’s peaceful heart farm DOT locals DOT com.

Final Thoughts Well, that concludes this podcast. There is always something going on the with animals and I love sharing our stories with you. I hope you have your own dreams going and adventures going on. It may be the trials and tribulations of your children, your career or your family. Please share with us on our Locals platform. We’d love to hear from you.

I hope you enjoyed my knitting story. I’m so excited to be getting back into the groove and feeding that creative impulse. What do you like to create? Let me know.

Thank you so much for stopping by our homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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I’m back from my podcast vacation. It has been three months since I recorded anything. We were both very, very busy and the things that keep the homestead financially solvent become front and center. It’s good to be back in front of the microphone.

Let me take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners. The subscriber numbers continued to go up even though I was absent. Again, thank you so much. And a big welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. I’m not sure how much I’m going to include in today’s episode. As I said, it has been three months and a whole lotta stuff has happened in that time.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Those of you that are members of our Locals.com community will have heard about some of the things I’m going to talk. That’s thanks to Scott. He posts weekly about the cows and the creamery. If you’d like to hear his perspective, go to peacefulheartfarm.locals. com and join our community. It’s free to sign up. We also have specific data that is for subscribers only. Also, anyone can read, watch and listen, but only subscribers can comment and make their own posts to the community. There is a minimal fee $5 per month to subscribe, though you can support us at whatever level you choose. And again, read, watch, listen for free.

A shout out and huge “Thank You” to our Locals supporters. You help us keep going. Again, for those of you interested in more content, the address is peaceful heart farm.Locals.com.

Let’s start with the cows. The centerpiece of our operation as a small dairy and creamery.

Cows Breeding season with artificial insemination began the last week of May. In August, when I last published a podcast, we had one confirmed pregnancy with a second AI procedure in progress, waiting on preg confirmation the first week of September. Today, we STILL have only one confirmed pregnancy and the last AI appointment for this cycle was completed about three weeks ago. We have spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on this AI process. I believe there have been a total of three tries. We have to work with the vet’s schedule so the timeframes have stretched long.

The second attempt produced three or four additional pregnancies and we set up the third AI appointment to try and get the four remaining cows impregnated. The second attempt girls were preg checked with ultrasound and three or four confirmed. However, before the next AI session, they all aborted. The aborts were likely related to a spirochete infection that is spread via deer urine. We treated all the cows. The next AI appointment was scheduled so we could start all over again and get them cycling all at the same time. Time just kept moving forward and here we are in November and still only one confirmed pregnancy. The third attempt is completed.

Last AI Vet Visit The vet will come again a few days after Thanksgiving to see where we stand. One of the reasons this has stretched so long is the vet waits 65 days or so to be able to confirm pregnancy with ultrasound. We already know that only two have not come into heat again. Five have been bred by Ferdinand. We can tell because of what are called “heat stickers” If they get mounted, the stickers are rubbed clean and the underlying fluorescent orange becomes visible. That means possibly two out of seven on this last try.

So why do I keep saying it is the last try? Well, that’s because we finally bit the bullet and bought the bull I just mentioned. We purchased Ferdinand about a month ago. He’s a gorgeous guernsey bull. Of course, this is not ideal because our plan is to have 100% registered Normande dairy herd. But we had to do something just to get calves so the cows would be in milk.

We can’t support the herd shares and make cheese without lactating cows and we don’t have lactating cows if they don’t give birth to calves every so often. Even if we are able to continue milking them, their milk production continuously declines the farther they are from their last delivery. We don’t know how long they will produce milk before they naturally dry up. Some say around 12 months. Others say they have had cows lactate for two years. We may just find the answer to that question for our girls.

Ferdinand is Our Hope of Success The bottom line is that Ferdinand will get our girls pregnant and we will have milk in the fall of 2023. Most of the calves out of Ferdinand will be sold as they won’t add to our goal of a 100% Normande herd. I believe I talked about our particular plan was to always have calves in the spring and not milk in the winter. That plan has been completely turned on its head. We may end up milking year-round for a little while. I won’t explain the details here, but it requires going without calves again for more than a year. It may work out just fine, but it will take time. Again, keeping up with the herd shares and having milk to make cheese is the priority, whatever it takes. Otherwise, we simply cannot remain financially viable.

Nickle is on Deck On the upside, we have a registered purebred Normande bull named Nickle that was born in April this year. We kept him intact because a neighbor wanted to buy him after he was weaned. In the end, we backed out of that sale because we do actually live and learn. We will keep Nickle around for at least two or three years, perhaps more, before replacing him with another. Ferdinand will likely have another chance next year as we expect Nickle to be still too small to get the job done.

It was a good idea on paper to not keep a bull around and feed him hay through the winter for just two months of work in the early summer. AI seemed to be the best way to go – and to be sure, we have not given up on that completely. However, our AI experience has now shown us the necessity of keeping a bull.

Scott Needs to Learn the AI Procedure The first two years we used AI, I believe we had about a 50% success rate on the first try. And that’s pretty average according to the stats. But this last go round has been a nightmare – a very costly nightmare. So where do we go from here?

The plan is for Scott to learn how to do AI himself. There are workshops available and he will be attending one sometime in the future. I’m sure he will be very good at this task. He has a strong medical background. Right now, he is still very busy with building the creamery (more on that later), and with the bull, we are good-to-go for breeding at this point.

As we get to the place in our journey where Scott can act quickly when a cow comes into heat and we are not reliant on the vet to perform the procedure, I believe AI will once again become a good fit for us. We will still keep a bull on hand. A bull is going to be needed if we expect to keep our calving season in a specific window of time. Ok, enough about the cows.

Dogs Have I got a story for you regarding the dogs? It is pretty wild. I’ll start from where I left off, but stay until the end. About a week ago, something crazy happened.

We started with three livestock guardian dogs. Mack was born and raised with sheep and cows. His owners sold all of their livestock and Mack needed a new home. Charlotte and Finn were guarding chickens and turkeys and their owners also decided to get out of the business. Let’s talk about Mack first.

Food Aggression I have mentioned several times that Mack is a great dog, but food or resource aggressive. In the last episode I talked about trying to get him to bond with the sheep and getting the sheep to be okay with him in their space. And I talked about how he barked and growled at them to keep them away from his food. Well, that situation escalated a bit because Charlotte also became food aggressive and the two of them went at each other’s throats twice before I separated them.

Finn disappeared and Charlotte ended up hanging with Mack and the sheep. The first time there was an incident, I saw Mack go to Charlotte’s bowl. He was finished eating and she was goofing off with a treat a few feet away from her bowl. As she saw him invade her bowl, she went after him. It was pretty intense for about 5 or 10 seconds. She won that battle and I thought it was over. Fast forward a few weeks. They have now been moved a couple times. They go with the sheep when the sheep need to move. They are all back in paddock #8 when it happened again. This time Charlotte tried to eat out of Mack’s bowl. They went at it again for 5 or 10 seconds. It’s a really scary thing to see. They definitely meant business. The next day, Mack would not approach his bowl when I brought it to him. I knew that was very wrong.

Progress at Last After a quick consultation and a post to the Livestock Guardian Dog Training Facebook page, I was informed they were both now food aggressive and needed to be fed separately or it would end badly, with one of them cowed and skinny or dead. I immediately began taking Mack completely out of the pasture and over to the garden area before giving him his bowl. The garden is fenced so he could not wander very far and he is easily moved from one place to another. I gave Charlotte her bowl in the pasture well away from the livestock.

Mack always eats right away. Charlotte did not. But she is a very smart girl. It only took one time of me picking up that bowl and walking away with it and not returning until the next day for her to learn that when I bring it, she needs to eat it. We have not had a problem since.

This change of feeding practice has changed everything. This change provided such an immediately productive outcome that I was, and still am, elated. I talk a lot about our challenges with one thing and another here on the homestead. And when one challenge is not only overcome but produces this kind of productive outcome, I’m on cloud nine. Within days of beginning the new feeding regimen, these two dogs became the best of friends. Charlotte was immediately willing to work with and hang out with Mack. Up until then, she had been aloof with Mack. And better than that, she started becoming more friendly toward me.

Charlotte is My Friend It has been a while since I talked about this, but all of our dogs have had some kind of issue that I deal with on a daily basis. Charlotte’s issue was that she would not let anyone near her. We had to trap her in smaller and smaller areas just to get close enough for the vet to examine her. She is a really beautiful Great Pyrenees and I just wanted to love on her. It was frustrating that she would never let me close. A few weeks after the change between her and Mack, she started to change her attitude toward me as well.

Oddly, she still runs away from me and won’t let me touch her when I bring her food. But when I come at any other time and even after she finishes her food, she lets me pet her now. She will still shy away if I move too quickly, but I’m so pleased to be able to actually pet her. And this morning, while I was out checking on the baby goats (more on that later), she actually put her paw on me to get my attention while I was looking away at the sheep. She touched me. Twice she did this. I feel so blessed to have finally made so much progress with her. It has been just barely over a year since we got her and finally, she will let me love her.

Finn is Back Now for the bombshell. Finn is back. Some of you are new and have no idea what I am talking about. Here’s the scoop. Last year when we got Charlotte, another dog also came with the package. Some of you will remember him but I’ll recap here for all the newbies.

Finn is an Anatolian/Great Pyrenees cross. He is like a big cuddly bear. As I said, there are challenges will all of our dogs. They were all rehomed to us as adults and, as is common, they have not been the perfect livestock guardian dogs that we imagined. Many of the posts on the Livestock Guardian Dog Facebook page are about issues with rehomed or rescued dogs and the consensus is that these dogs are always a roll of the dice as to whether they will actually work with your livestock and your operation. It is just about the only option, though, if you want an adult dog. With a puppy, it is two years before it can be trusted alone with the livestock. Anyway, Finn’s vice is that he roams. It was impossible to keep him inside our perimeter fence. And that fence was built to contain goats. But goats got nothing on a dog that loves to roam.

Finn’s Story In the first six months of his time with us, he escaped at least three or four times. Luckily, I had immediately gotten tags for all of the dogs that have our farm name and phone number printed on them. He may have escaped even more than four times, now that I think about it. Three times we got a call from a neighbor and we had to go pick him up. One time he was about five miles away. I’m pretty sure there were other times when he didn’t go far and we were able to get him back home quickly. It’s hard to remember, so much has happened since then. It seemed like he escaped every day.

About six months ago, he escaped and never returned and there were no calls from a neighbor to tell us where to pick him up. Up to that point, he had never been gone for more than a day or two before someone called us. Six months ago, he disappeared. We grieved the loss. Charlotte grieved the loss also. Then, about a week ago, Scott found him walking along the fence line near the road. It was easy to get him to come inside the fence and he is happily residing with Charlotte once again. Is that not the most amazing thing? Six months and he just showed up. His tag with our farm name and number was missing. Did someone keep him for themselves? I never thought that was possible. Mainly because he was impossible to contain and he would have escaped from that person also. We will probably never know.

Finn’s Health Upon His Return He was covered with more cockleburs than I have ever seen and his left eye is injured. He will not hold it open. I tried a couple of times to cut out the cockleburs but he was having none of it. We were exploring ways to be able to get this done without him biting us. The point became moot. He cleared those cockleburs himself within two or three days. I have no idea how he got the giant mat of them from under his neck. I can see how he probably pulled them off of his legs and I had successfully clipped them free from his back. There are still a few and it is good to know he is so good at keeping his coat clean. Anyway, he is a little thin and has that issue with his eye and I’m monitoring that, but otherwise he looks good.

What Happened with Mack? There is one other bit to throw in here. Only a few days before his return, we had decided that Mack was simply not going to work with the sheep. He kept charging at them to exert his dominance. He didn’t really chase them, but he would bark and run toward them until they moved, then he would stop and trot away. Then he killed a chicken and that was sort of the last straw, though it was not all his fault.

The chickens go anywhere they want and I was worried in the beginning about him chasing them. Charlotte was guarding chickens at the farm where we picked her up so I was not worried about her. Anyway, it only took about two weeks before my fear was realized. I went down to feed him and he did not come when I called. I found him guarding his prize. She was not quite dead, but mortally wounded. We processed her and put him back in with the cows and left Charlotte with the sheep.

Charlotte and the Sheep Charlotte was doing fairly well with the sheep, though she is actually afraid of the them. She runs if they come close. But she was staying in their general vicinity as they mosey around the pasture grazing. So, when Finn returned, we put him back in with her and the sheep. What else could we do? The paddock she was currently occupying seemed to satisfy her – she used to escape just about every day also, but she seemed to be bonding with the sheep to the point of actively protecting them even if she did still run from them. And she stayed in the pasture with them.

When Finn arrived back on the scene, she went immediately up on the hill where the sheep were grazing. She greeted Finn but seemed to have no interest in him and returned to her job. That was the first day. It didn’t last. Now a week later, she has warmed up to Finn again and is not really staying with the sheep anymore. That was our original problem that led to the final escape of Finn. We had given up on Charlotte and Finn being useful for guarding the sheep. They were more attached to each other than the livestock. They bark much more when they are together than Charlotte alone. And they both escaped regularly. We were looking to rehome them and just work with Mack.

That was the fateful time when Finn escaped and did not return. As I said, both Charlotte and Finn escaped regularly, but Charlotte was always right back in the morning or sometimes even the same evening. Every time we moved them to a new place where they had never been, we spent days finding and fortifying their escape routes. On that fateful day, we put them in the orchard while we moved Mack in with the sheep. This was their first time there and it was not fortified. Less than half an hour in the orchard and they were gone. Charlotte returned before dark and Finn was gone for six months.

It is good to have him back, but we are back to square one. In the end, Mack didn’t work out with the sheep any more than Finn and Charlotte.

We Still Have Issues I know I’ve rambled on and on about our defective livestock guardian dogs. And we may still have to make some hard decisions. You probably realize that at this point, I’m really attached to all of them. Now, only a week after his return, Finn has converted Charlotte back to her original self. She escapes and goes wherever she wants, never staying where we put her, not really staying with the sheep. She hangs with Finn.

So far, Finn escaped a couple of times but seems to be secure at the moment after Scott spent time patching up his escape locations. Not so with Charlotte. She could always get out no matter what we did. But again, she always came right back so she was not so much of a worry. Without Finn, she had stopped that behavior. I have no doubt that Finn will eventually escape again and he may disappear again.

We are back to square one with all three dogs. My rational self tells me that we need to get some actual livestock guardian dogs that will work with our animals. And then my emotional self can’t seem to get moving on that, can’t seem to imagine being without them. Sigh.

Enough of that. Let’s talk about the goats.

Kiko Goats I’m not going to say a lot about the goats as the podcast will get too long and I want to talk a bit about the chickens and the creamery.

We have had our new registered 100% New Zealand Kiko goats for a little over a month. They are so cute. Rhuarc is the buck. The does are Amys and Lian. All of those names will become familiar to you if you watch Amazon’s Wheel of Time series. At least I hope they will. I’m not happy about what they are doing with my all-time favorite book series as they adapt it to the screen. Not true to the books at all and those names may never appear in the screen adaptation. But there is always the books.

These are beautiful animals and they came from a great Kiko goat operation right here in Patrick County Virginia. The farm owner is a wonderful woman with a wealth of knowledge about this breed of goat. She has a couple hundred.

Small Challenge The only challenge I have had so far is getting them tamed down a little bit. We definitely did not want a repeat of the last goats that we had that ran from us wildly for the first couple of years. This time we put them in a 16’ x 16’ pen where we could begin to make friends with them before sending them out to the larger acreage.

The buck is now separated from the does. They are not old enough to be bred though at this point it is likely possible. So, the plan is to keep them separated for a few months until the does get old enough to be bred. Rhuarc now comes up to me and eats out of my hand. I can’t actually catch him up, but he does not run wildly in every direction when he sees me as they all did in the beginning.

This plan has worked out really well. Just this morning I let Lian and Amys out of their pen into the paddock with the sheep. I introduced the dogs to them. Both seemed quite disinterested so that was good. It was important that they not hurt my new babies. So far, so good. That’s about all I have to say about the goats. I’ll check on them in just a few minutes. I pray all is well on their first day out.

Chickens Moving on to the chickens. To recap, we have two breeds. Black Copper Marans and American White Bresse. The Marans lay chocolate brown eggs and the Bresse lay tan eggs. I’m not happy with the current egg production. I was looking for more eggs, but the jury is still out on whether we move forward with these breeds or switch to another.

I hatched 14 Bresse and 9 Marans. When they reached maturity, we processed the excess roosters. There were 8 Bresse roosters and we processed 6 of those. We were blessed with six Maran hens, exactly what I wanted, and we kept two of the three roosters.

The Chicken Plan Right now, the rooster-to-hen ratio is way off. We need lots more hens. That will come in the spring when we hatch out lots of baby chicks. We wanted to have backup roosters but now I think that if we lose a rooster, we could just buy another group of chicks and raise a new rooster. That is the likely path we will take. In the next processing cycle, we will downsize to just one rooster of each breed.

These are great chickens. Well, I can say that chickens in general are very interesting creatures. And they are easy to care for and maintain. The American White Bresse are a special breed that has been bred to eat milk-soaked grain in the last two weeks before processing. Their meat becomes almost like marbled beef – or so they say. We haven’t tried it yet. We processed that first batch without the milk-soaked feed.

That’s it for the chickens. I’m not going to talk about the garden and orchard. They are going to sleep for the winter. I do have some thoughts there, but not for this podcast.

Creamery Let me finish up by talking about the progress on the creamery. We are nearing the end. The light at the end of the tunnel is now visible. Floors, electrical, plumbing and hooking up the gas will finish it out. I expect we will be a USDA inspected cheesemaking plant in the spring. That’s about six years from start to finish on this project. Without Scott’s bout with cancer last year, I would have been able to say five years. I am so blessed that he is fine now. So, six instead of five is just fine with me. It was a bit of a scare and a very tough season of life for him, but he is strong and healthy and continuing on with the crowning creation of his life. I hope you will visit once we open for business and see all that he has done.

Tile Floors Currently, Scott is in a race with the weather. He is working on the tile floors. Both the glue that holds the tile to the concrete floor and the grout that goes between the tiles are temperature sensitive. The temps need to be above 50 in order for the chemical processes to work effectively. As of today, he has all the tiles in place and is working on completing the grout. That is going to take several days. I’m not sure how many. He has probably posted about it on the Locals page. It’s hard for me to keep up with the exact days, especially when it can change on a daily basis if something goes awry or another task for the animals takes president. Caring for the animals always comes first.

Electrical and Plumbing Once he has completed those floors, I believe he will go back to the electrical. If I remember correctly, he said he is about 50% done with the electrical. The next big thing is the plumbing.

He wanted to contract that out. It has probably been nine months since he started trying to find someone to do the work. That was like pulling teeth. No one was even willing to take on the job. No one had the time. Then when he did find someone, the bid was double what he expected to pay. We found that out just yesterday. At this point, he is back to having to do it himself. That means lots more time with YouTube videos and phone consultations with his brother in Florida. This makes me sad, but I also know he will get through it. My Scott is a tough guy and very goal oriented. He will get it done, whatever it takes.

Large Cheese Cave on Hold He does have one room that is sitting untouched. The large cheese cave will not be completed until after the initial USDA inspected status is completed. Once winter sets in, he won’t be able to do the tile in that room until the spring. Until then, we have the small cheese cave functional and available.

I’m going to end it here. There is a lot more I could say but this has already gone long. You can find lots more information on the creamery posted on our Locals platform. That’s peacefulheartfarm.locals.com. Scott is always uploading videos of the animals and his work on the creamery.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. It feels good to be back. Things are slowing down for me for the winter, though there is still a lot to do. I hope to get back on schedule with regular podcasts. Even in the winter there are exciting things going on here at the homestead. Scott will continue his hectic schedule even through the winter. I am feeling the excitement of this project coming to fruition.

Even with all the challenges of getting the cows bred and dealing with our less-than-perfect livestock guardian dogs, we keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I went on and on about the dogs I know and there is still so much that I did not say. I hope you enjoyed life on our homestead through my eyes and that you will continue to follow our journey as we build on our homestead dreams.

And come on over to our Locals community. Subscribe at peacefulheartfarm.locals.com. We’d love to have your support and input in the community. And we’d love to help you out by answering your questions. I’ll be posting another episode in the productivity series that I started on the Locals platform. The first was on concentration and the next will be on developing and maintaining memory. See you there!

Thank you so much for stopping by our homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Multitasking. How do I get so much done in one day? This is a question I get often. I do a lot of multitasking on the homestead. I didn’t just wake up one day and do this. There was a process that I went through to get from a scattered, unfocused, ineffective person to one who can just get things done. Now of course, I’m not always in that zone and there are days when I’m going into a room and wondering why I am there, multiple times a day. There are remedies to the unfocused mind. And I’m going to talk about that today.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I’ll keep this part brief as I give you the updates on our animals, gardens and the creamery.

Cows The cows are still undergoing various artificial insemination routines. The first attempt we inseminated eight of our cows. Cookie had just given birth a few weeks ahead of this so she was not in this first rotation. Princess is the only one that took. We did eight again. No Princess but adding in Cookie this time.

We checked the semen and it was viable. However, the bull with the semen sexed to produce heifers was much less active. In the end, we used this semen on our Normande cows and we used the unsexed semen on the jersey girls. We will pray for greater success this time and know for sure in about three weeks. I don’t expect all of them to take. That would be wonderful, but it is not statistically likely. At that point, we will need to think about the next step. We would be getting very late in the breeding cycle. We may continue on anyway because we need the milk to make the cheese.

It’s just so frustrating right now. We plan for births in March and April. If we try again, it would push the births back into May and June. Then we get into the situation like we had with Cookie this year. The cows will not be ready to start the breeding process again in the first week of June if they give birth in May. I think I’ve mentioned this before that we make choices every single day trying to create our homestead exactly as we imagine. In the end, it never happens as we imagine and we must roll with the punches and make another plan.

Dogs and Sheep The dogs and sheep are doing well. I have them collected together so they can get used to each other. I’m still waiting on that magic moment when the dogs and the sheep bond. So far, the sheep are still afraid of the dogs. Sooner or later, they will cave and become used to these noisy beasts in their space. We closed them up into an even tighter space so they are more likely to get to know each other a little bit better.

I’ve watched the sheep watching me feed the dogs. I even saw one start to approach Mack’s bowl while he was off munching on a bone. He is very sharp and spotted the advance right away. He immediately went to his bowl and growled very ferociously at that sheep and she backed away. As I said, I don’t want them to be afraid of the dogs, but I do want them to respect the dogs and their food. I’ve considered making a separate place for feeding the dogs and that may still happen – likely will happen. But I’m going to wait a little longer. I want the sheep to know that he will only growl at them when protecting his food. Any other barking, I want them to assume he is doing his protection job.

Goats I’m getting a plan outlined to integrate the new goat kids into the group as well. It looks like that will happen sometime in early fall. We will have three new goat babies to add to our family. I’m excited about that and a little apprehensive as well. They are young and small and I’m still learning about these dogs. Praying it all goes well. The goat kids will also have to learn to leave the dog food alone. It’s not likely that they will learn. That’s the point when feeding the dogs separately will become most important. The goat kids will change that dynamic and I will need to get that separate space going.

Creamery The electrical wiring is getting moving along rapidly at this point. Scott has gotten the hang of it and that part will soon be complete. I’m helping out by occasionally holding up pieces of metal as we get the ceilings in place. We’ve completed the barn, milking parlor and milk storage room. The cheese make room is in progress. I’m not sure what room is next. I just show up when he asks for my help.

Garden The garden is in full growth and production mode. That keeps me moving too. Like the fruit, vegetables need to be taken care of quickly or they spoil. Fortunately, I’ve had some customers lately that needed squash and cucumbers. What a blessing they have been in taking my excess veggies home with them. I’m about to have lots and lots of eggplant as well.

It has been a while since it rained and I am back to watering in the evenings again. Some of the cucumbers are looking a little worse for wear as is the zucchini. They may be close to completing their cycle this time around. Now that I think about it, I could start more plants inside and have summer squash and cucumbers back in the garden in time for a late harvest. That sounds like more work than I have time for but I will still consider it in the next few days.

Chickens I’m looking for my first chicken eggs any day now. Scott has completed the nest boxes and the hens have been trying them out. I think they like their new boxes.

We have six white and one black rooster that need to be processed. That will be enough for quite a few months for us. We don’t eat a lot of chicken but I am looking forward to these American Bresse chickens. They are supposed to be prize winning meat birds. I’ll let you know how that goes.

That’s it for the homestead updates. Let’s move on to the main topic. Multitasking. How do I get so much done in a day?

Multitasking – Concentration is Key I have several things in motion today. A gallon and a half of yogurt and a pot of bone broth are both long term tasks that I don’t have to monitor. Well at least I don’t have to monitor them after I get them set up. The yogurt has an in-between step where I need to cool the milk and add the cultures. Then it just sits in the Instant Pot for eight hours.

I have the juicer/steamer going. That is full of blackberries. I’ll extract the juice and then make seedless blackberry jelly. It’s a crowd favorite. I also need to process about a gallon and a half of strawberries and get them into the jam pot. That should keep me pretty busy throughout the day.

Waiting on the sidelines are the cherries and blueberries still in the freezer. Grab them as they ripen and put them in the freezer. Putting them in the freezer is a great method of getting done what would otherwise be an overwhelming task. Fruit can go bad quickly so it needs to be dealt with quickly. I can go back later and make the frozen fruits into jams and jellies. I love it. Low stress is great.

So, what is the secret to being able to juggle multiple tasks efficiently?

What does it take to multitask effectively? A strong mind with skills in concentration, memory and imagination. Everyone has these capabilities. As far as I know, none of these mental skills is related to intelligence. To develop these skills require specific exercises, just like you would exercise a muscle. The more you exercise a muscle, the stronger it becomes. Perhaps there is a limit to how strong your mental muscles can become, but I am not aware of one.

On a side note, I am aware of the physical limitations of memory. Alzheimer’s is a real thing. Dementia is a real thing. The physical changes in the brain are real and strength in memory requires a healthy brain.

Past, Present and Future Concentration, memory and imagination. These are three mental capabilities and they relate to the past (memory), the present (concentration) and the future (imagination). There are exercises for each of these mental muscles. When they are all strengthened and working together, juggling multiple tasks becomes easier. Staying focused becomes easier. Regaining focus after distractions is easier.

Developing the Skill of Concentration Today, I’ll start with concentration. This is probably the most important area for me. Indeed, this skill is required as a foundation to develop memory and imagination. We will get to those two in later podcasts.

Practicing concentration is where I always start when I feel out of sorts. Focusing my attention into the present moment relieves a great deal of stress and calms my anxiety. The key is to practice concentration and focus of attention outside of any stressful situation. In other words, you need to train the muscle so when you need it, you simply call on it and it is there.

Trying to learn how to concentrate in the midst of chaos is futile. Set aside a specific time to practice. Make this a time when you will have no interruptions. Turn off your phone and any other electronic devices that may distract you from your practice session. You want to set aside this time to develop muscle memory related to concentration.

First Develop Muscle Memory If any of you have had dance, music, art, or singing lessons you know what I am talking about here. Let’s say you are dancing the ballet. You did not just wake up one day and perform. It takes hours and hours, weeks and weeks, months and months and years and years to perfect your dance steps. You practice them in small pieces, repeatedly moving your feet, arms – your whole body in particular ways. You are repeating particular motions over and over again. And when the time comes to put it all together into a dance, you are simply repeating those motions in various combinations. Your body knows exactly how to position itself when your mind calls upon it to perform a long-practiced motion.

Another Example of Muscle Memory The same with playing the piano. Hours and hours go into playing the scales. And not just playing the scales, but playing the scales with your fingers in particular positions and repeating the names of the notes in your mind. Those notes become drilled into your brain’s memory. Eventually, when someone puts a piece of music in front of you, commanding your fingers to play the notes you see before you will come easily. Each note is engraved in its own memory hole along with the hand and finger motions to make it happen. The training embeds into your memory muscle memory what it takes to play a G# or middle C without having to think a whole lot about it. Without that foundation, you are left to pick out a tune and play the same tune over and over until you get it. Sure, it can be done. You can learn the song, but you will always lack the flexibility that someone with the muscle memory has ingrained in their brain.

Concentration is Also a Learned Skill With concentration, the same is true. Instead of a physical muscle memory, I built a mental muscle memory. Because I have practiced the skill of concentration, usually it takes little to no effort to call on it anytime I feel scattered or unfocused. I can play my mind and make it dance according to my desire.

Your Physical State Affects Your Ability to Concentrate I say it “usually” requires little effort because I am also aware of how my physical state of being can affect my ability to concentrate no matter how much I know what to do, I may have something else going on that overrides my skill. Perhaps I didn’t get enough sleep, or I ate lots of sugar or I’m in pain and all of my attention is naturally drawn to it. I can practice and develop the skill but I also recognize that human beings are complex and even with the best of intentions and the best will in the world, God and life can step in at any time and rearrange my carefully constructed plans. In any case, even if my life is scattered to the wind, I can regain some control in any situation. My ability to concentrate may not be perfect in times of stress, pain and poor nutrition, but it definitely is much better than no skill at all with concentration.

Here is an exercise that I used to develop my concentration skills.

You will need several items. 1) a candle, 2) piece of paper and a pencil, 3) table and chair, 4) timer. The candle will be burning for 10 minutes at a time. Keep that in mind as you choose the size of your candle. A kitchen timer is fine or even a timer on your phone.

Concentration Exercise Steps: * Sit comfortably in a chair at a table * Place the candle directly in front of you * Place the paper to the right or left, depending on your right or left handedness. Place it where your arm is comfortably able to hold the point of the pencil on the paper * Light the candle * Set the timer for 10 minutes * Focus your attention on the candle flame and start the timer * Hold your attention on that candle flame. * Each time you notice that your attention has wandered from the flame, make a mark on the paper and bring your attention back to the flame

That’s it. Practice this exercise every day. Set aside 10 minutes a day to train your brain.

There is no need to keep the paper. The paper and pencil marks serve as a physical stimulus to refocus your attention. That’s all. It’s not about how many marks you make. That is irrelevant. The pencil marks are a way to grab hold of your attention and then move your attention back to the flame. You may want to keep the paper with marks as a record of your consistency with the exercise. Your goal is to do this exercise every single day.

If you run into trouble, let me know. I will be offering guidance on the Locals platform. Again, that is Peaceful Heart Farm dot Locals dot Com. Support my work over there and I will be there by your side to support you in your work. Further instruction in memory and imagination will also be available there. I’d love to help you reach your goals and improve your concentration, memory and imagination.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. We are moving along at lightening speed here on the homestead. I’m practicing concentration and mental focus every single day. It makes my life so much easier. I hope this exercise helps you as well. Oh, I need to mention that you will want to give it time. You’ve spent a great deal of time letting your mind move you. It will take some time for you to get ahold of those reigns and begin to direct your thoughts more purposefully – for you to move your mind. There will be some good days and some days when you won’t be able to concentrate to save your life. But gradually, you will develop greater and greater skill. You will see the results in your daily life. All it takes is a little practice. Okay, okay, a lot of practice. But it’s just 10 minutes a day. You can do it!

Thank you so much for stopping by our homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Today I’m doing a little bit of Homestead musing. More “a day in the life” sort of podcast. I’ll make is a short one and I hope you like it. I love sharing my life with all of you.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates We got a late start this morning. I was Chatty Patty before morning prayers so we started an hour late, that’s 7:15 instead of 6:15. It’s now just about 10 am. I have fed and watered the chickens, emptied the dishwasher, sorted and started the laundry and am on my second load, cut down an entire 3’ x 8’ bed of swiss chard and disposed of it (more on that later), cooked about 3 pounds of swiss chard (some we will eat and some will be frozen), froze 2 gallons of blackberries and 3 gallons of blueberries and set up 1½ gallons of milk to make yogurt. I also need to set up for waxing last week’s cheese. Scott is currently pouring the milk into the cheese vat so I can make Pinnacle. That is our aged alpine-style cheese – sort of like gruyere. Yes, today is a cheese make day so I’ll have to get back to you later for the rest of the podcast. Love ya. Bye for now.

Ok, I’m back. Just a short update. I’ve got the culture in the cheese milk and I have a few minutes before the next step. I have to bring the temperature of the milk up to 90 degrees for the cheese that I am making today. The way that I do that is to put hot water in the metal jacket cheese vat. It is sort of like a double boiler except that it is completely closed. Well, not quite completely closed. There are a couple of openings at the top that let the displaced air out as the water fills the jacket.

Focus is Really Important I have to be quite focused when I am doing this part because I tend to check on the milk and then go do something else and then check the milk again. If I am also filling the water in the jacket, a disaster can sometimes happen. It has already happened once this cheesemaking season. If I forget that the water is running, it will completely fill the jacket and then overflow through the opening at the top onto the floor. What a mess that makes. I think once I forgot and it was overflowing for like five minutes. There was water everywhere. If I was in the actual cheese make room we are building, this would not be a big deal. It would simply go down the drain in the floor. But at the moment we have a temporary set up in our storage room. There is a drain in the floor, but the floor is tile and not meant for lots of water to be on it. Anyway, no such disaster happened today.

More homestead musings. I’m going to get in a few animal updates before I need to go tend to the cheese again.

Cows We are in the midst of the AI process with our cows and it is not going well. You know, one thing and another. I say this often. Life on the homestead is never dull. There is always something going on that you did not plan. We plan for pregnancies but God has the final say. We had one – possibly two – heifers that appear to have taken on the first try. That’s one or two out of eight. We have to start over with the other six. Add to that an inconvenient medical condition and we are way behind on getting these cows bred.

We are praying for the health of our vet. She got the Covid and is still under the weather. Once she is back on her feet, we will preg check the two girls we think took and give the other six another chance. Actually, there are seven because Cookie is now far enough past her delivery to begin the AI process as well. If we don’t have success this time, I’m not sure what we will do. It is extremely expensive to do AI over and over and over. So expensive that we are reconsidering keeping a bull.

Keeping a bull is also a huge expense because the bull is eating and eating and eating while only being useful for a couple of months out of a year. It’s a dilemma. However, at this point, the AI is going to cost more than feeding that bull through the winter with hay. Will it be that way every year? Who knows? We do the best we can and make new choices. Ideally, Scott would be able to do our AI but that is a long and involved learning curve. I’ll keep you posted on that topic.

Quail and Chickens We are out of the quail business. The last of the quail were processed last week. I have quite a supply of eggs saved up. Hopefully, the new pullets will start laying about the same time I run out of quail eggs for Scott. The chickens are doing fantastic. I couldn’t be more happy there. We have at least six American White Bresse hens and eight roosters to choose from to fill out the breeding flock. There are a total of nine Black Copper Marans. The distribution there is nearly perfect. There are six hens and three roosters. I’ll be keeping two each of the roosters and the rest will get processed for eating.

Garden A few thoughts on the garden. I mentioned that I took out an entire bed of Swiss chard. We had a dry spell throughout June. So much so that we bought extra hay to get the cows through this winter. Well, now it is raining every day. The weather is always weird. Anyway, the Swiss chard got a fungus, some kind of unpronounceable leaf spot. The red variety got it, but the giant white looks fine at the moment. I cut down every plant in the bed of red. We shall see if it grows back and if I eradicated the fungus.

Everything else looks really, really good. This is the fifth year of using this particular raised bed system. The first year we started with cut up trees, fill dirt from around the homestead and a top layer of purchased organic composted soil. The next four years, Scott added our own composted soil to the beds. This year it has really paid off. The eggplants are huge. As are the squash. The peppers took a little bit of time to catch on but there are going great guns right now.

Homestead Musing About Plants: Do I Have Too Much Plant and Not Enough Produce? Because I planted everything so late, I’m not sure whether I am growing too much plant and no fruit, or if I just need to wait for the blooms. This morning the squash was covered in blooms and bees. I’m still not sure about that eggplant. It may be all plant and no fruit. My cilantro survived the dry heat of June. So far, so good there. The tomatoes are going to need more support in the next couple of days. I have small tomatoes and lots of healthy plants.

The lima beans are blooming. There are three beds of winter squash. The butternut I grew from plant starts so they are already producing squash, too small to pick, but there are lots of them. The other two beds are a variety of other winter squash that I started from seed. They plants look great. They are fending off the squash bugs and I look for a great crop there. The summer squash looks like all plant and they are huge, but as I said, they are now covered with blooms as are the cucumbers.

It’s little weird that it is July and I am just now getting the first squash and cucumbers. I really didn’t get my garden planted until June. Normally, it was would have been a month earlier, but I was holding on to my plants to sell at the farmer’s market. And Independence and Galax are both in a different USDA planting zone. The elevation there is about 2,500 to 3,000 and we are between 1,200 and 1,400 here. There is a big difference in temperature.

Making Cheese Well, I’m off to tend cheese again.

And now I’m back. That’s the last time I will tell you when I leave and return. When making cheese, there are often timespans of 5, 10 or 15 minutes – or even 30 minutes to an hour where I need to leave the process to continue what it is doing and return later to go to the next step.

The cheese make process is going exceptionally well. I probably shouldn’t say that as superstition would indicate that I just jinxed myself. Oh well, I don’t believe in superstition, so there you go. I expect it will continue to go well.

Creamery We are getting closer and closer to completing this project. Scott is sometimes down that he is not getting more done. There is always another something that needs to be done instead of working on the creamery. My advice to him and to you is to keep your attention focused on what is in front of you. Do what needs to be done right now and the rest of it will take care of itself. No sense ruminating over what didn’t happen. Let’s be grateful for what did happen. Let’s be grateful for what we have gotten done. Let’s be grateful for the people that touched our lives this week.

We thought it would be complete in late summer summer/early fall. Then spring happened. Even though the cows would need to be dried up and we wouldn’t have milk to make cheese, we thought it would be complete by year end. Then summer happened. At the moment, I’m feeling pretty confident that it will be done by the time the cows give birth in the spring. We can have a USDA inspected cheese facility just about the time we have milk to make the cheese. That sounds like a plan. . . right? We shall see.

Cheese Update! It did go well. The cheese is in the press for the final time. I’ll check it in the morning and move it to the brine tank for salting. And at least five months until it is mature. Seven months is better. And a year is the best.

Final Thoughts That’s really about all I have to say for today. I just wanted to check in with you all and let you know the status of our homestead and give you yet another window into the lifestyle. As always, we love it and wouldn’t have it any other way. There are always more tasks to be accomplished than there are hours in a day. It gives us purpose and motivation. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming but at those times, I just let some of those tasks slip a notch or two down the list. There are a few things that have to be done on a specific time schedule. But many more do not. I choose what I do on any given day. I choose how much I will do on any given day. Most of the time I choose to do an unbelievable amount in one day. Or at least it seems so to me. Actually, I only think that in contrast to the other days when I laze around and get very little accomplished. Well, there are fewer of those days. I get bored pretty easily and get right back to it.

How about you? Do you get bored easily? Are you dreaming of the day when you get to call your own shots? Are you working toward that goal? If you are, here is a little encouragement. It may seem like you will never get there. Don’t lose heart. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

That’s What We Did At first, we planned five or 10 years into the future. Many times, it seemed like we would never get there. But here we are. We worked seven years longer than our original plan. We blew through our savings that was supposed to last until the creamery was built. It is still not done and we came up with other ways to make ends meet. We started our dream in 2003. That was 19 years ago and we are still going, trying to get this creamery built. In between then and now, we have changed our plans more times than I want to count. It was in 2012, ten years ago, that we decided to be artisan cheesemakers. It has taken a lot more steps, time, money, effort and so on than we ever imagined. But we never stopped imagining.

Scott is currently getting the electrical work done on the creamery. I help him with the ceilings from time to time as he moves from one room to the next. Electrical, plumbing, floors – we are nearly there.

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Thank you so much for stopping by our homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Raising animal protein for food on the homestead. What are some of the options? And what are some of the factors to consider when making your choices. As you may know our choices for raising animal protein on the homestead currently includes cows, goats, sheep and poultry. In the very near future, we plan on having pigs. There are other types of protein that we may have or have considered. I’ll talk about all of those.

But first, as always, I will never take you all for granted. You make this show possible.

Welcome to any and all new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. You mean so much to me. Thank you so much for your support of this podcast. It has been a while and I’m so excited to share with you all about the homestead.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates We’ve had a busy morning already. Scott is milking. I set up for making butter in a little while and put some yogurt on to ferment. It will be ready in less than 8 hours. I’ve been out to the garden and planted a half dozen flowers, stocks this time, and let the chickens out to play.

Chickens/Quail Chickens you say. When did that happen? If I remember correctly, the eggs began hatching on April the 8th. I had 24 eggs each of American White Bresse and Black Copper Maran. There were two incubators running and all went well. I hatched 17 White American Bresse and 7 Black Copper Marans.

Due to the low hatch rate on the Marans, the eBay seller sent me another dozen for the cost of postage. I incubated those and hatched three more of the Black Copper Maran from that batch.

The first batch of low hatch rate was not my fault. Most of the eggs were not fertile or perhaps were “scrambled” in the shipping process. But I must say that of those that didn’t hatch in the last dozen, four were nearly or fully formed. I have no idea why they died just before hatching but have to believe it must have been something I did or did not do with that last batch.

At the moment, I have 14 American White Bresse and 9 Black Copper Maran. I lost three of the Bresse and one of the Marans. That last loss happened just a few days ago. That particular chicken was hatched six days after the rest of the crew. It was always smaller, but a little over 2 weeks ago, it developed some kind of disorder. It couldn’t really stand up. The vet happened to be here that day and took a look at it. She recommended antibiotics for a few days and see how it goes. That seemed to help a bit but eventually the chick succumbed to whatever the ailment was.

The vet did not have a lot of information on chicken issues of this type. She said there are just too many variables without testing. And chicken generally are not worth the cost of testing. So, there you go.

Dogs There is a lot to talk about with the dogs. I’ll try to keep it brief. Let me start with the current state of affairs and then go back and fill in a few details. Finn disappeared about 4 weeks ago and has not returned. While he and Charlotte escaped a lot, Charlotte has always been back the next day and Finn never more than two days. We did have to go and fetch him three different times. He seemed to get so far away that he did not know how to get home.

Charlotte and Mack are now guarding the sheep. They seem to be doing well with that task. Charlotte still goes wherever she wants, whenever she wants, but she stays relatively close. She grieved for about two weeks after Finn disappeared. I had her on a tether so she could not run away, but even after I let her loose, she was very quiet. Being a Great Pyrenees, she generally barks a lot. But there was nothing for many days. Now she is back to barking up a storm.

Fear of Thunder Speaking of storms, on the day that Finn disappeared, there was a storm and Charlotte returned home only hours after they both escaped. I found that she is very scared of thunder. Still, after seven months, she will not let me walk up to her to pet her. But if there is thunder, she is right there beside me looking for comfort. I can pet her all I want in those moments. But Finn did not show up with her, not unusual.

Let’s see if I can be brief regarding of the circumstances of Finn’s final escape. Starting about six weeks ago, we were trying to get them to bond with the sheep so we put all of them together in the front pastures. We had already been trying this for some time in the field next to the house. We were able to contain the dogs there. The same was not true when we moved them to the front fields. For several days we tried patching places in the fence to keep them contained. They still escaped nearly every day. After an escape that had Scott going a few miles to pick up Finn, we put both of them back in the field right next to the house. Finn was put on a tether. Charlotte will stay close by to him. We then spent long hours discussing what we were going to do.

Another Coyote Attack In the meantime, we left the sheep in the front pasture. Within three days of the dogs being out of the pasture, we had a coyote attack. We lost six of seven lambs and one of our new ewes. The remaining sheep and lamb were moved back into the field next to the house with the dogs. Just three days alone and the coyotes zeroed in on them. We suffered yet another huge emotional and financial loss. It’s far in the past now and I am over it, but as you can probably imagine, it was quite traumatic at the time. Again, I was questioning whether we wanted to have sheep and goats.

I got over that bit of negativity and we still have the sheep and a deposit on some goat kids. More on that later.

After lots and lots of research, I decided to try and train Charlotte and Finn with an ecollar. It was recommended over and over again in the Livestock Guardian Training group on Facebook. No matter the ecollar system, it is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking.

We were keeping Finn on the tether and Charlotte always stayed with him. But what to do about protecting the sheep? We can’t keep them in the same field forever. The sheep must be rotated from field to field for their health and the availability of grass. The idea of fixing fences every day, every time we move them to another field or paddock was completely unrealistic. The time to complete the ecollar fence and training would be months and months. We decided to go back to an original plan before we got Finn and Charlotte. Mack was to be the sheepdog.

We had kept him separate with the cows because he chased the sheep. He bonded well with the cows and we were preoccupied with trying to train Charlotte and Finn to guard the sheep. All was well there. Now that Finn and Charlottes plan with the sheep was scrapped, we decided to bring Mack back into the picture. And this was the fatal day that we lost Finn.

Let’s Train Mack Now that we decided to train Mack with the sheep, what was the plan to make that happen? We needed to check the health of the flock after their coyote ordeal. The plan was to bring all the sheep and Mack to the corral together so he could see us working with the sheep. Then we would bring the lot of them back to the field next to the house for a week or so until Mack could start to see them as his animals to be protected. Well, we needed to move Finn and Charlotte out of that field while we made this short jaunt up the travel lane to the corral and back.

We put Finn and Charlotte into the lower garden fenced area. We had held them there before and there was no problem. We didn’t take the time to move the tether. By the time we returned with the sheep and Mack only about 30 minutes had passed. I’m guessing that within 10 minutes Finn and Charlotte had gotten into the orchard and then completely out of the perimeter fence.

I’m still grieving over Finn. Tomorrow will be four weeks. There is not much hope, but I still cling to just a little bit of hope. He has a collar that has our farm name and phone number clearly visible from 3 feet away. I can’t imagine someone would steal him. How would they know they needed to strongly contain him? He could have run afoul of a bear or that pack of coyotes. He could have been hit by a car, though we have found no evidence of that. Someone could have shot him. He could have gotten to the Primland resort. They have all sorts of bears, lions, and who knows what else over there. It’s an internationally known hunting resort. I just don’t know. I just don’t know. And that’s the worst, not knowing. He could still be out there.

A Brief Hope Still Burns About three weeks ago, we had a call from someone who thought they had “our dog”. I was so relieved, but then it wasn’t our dog, it wasn’t Finn. It was a Great Pyrenees dog that was extremely skinny and had some medical issues. Perhaps Finn is still out there somewhere like that trying to survive. There is that small string tied to hope coming up again. I better move on.

Sheep/Lambs The remaining sheep and lamb are doing really well. We moved forward with the plan for Mack guarding them. Charlotte was also in the same field and I let her off the tether after only a few days. She was so despondent I thought it was best. My instincts were correct for once in that situation. No more escaping. She stays pretty close, though she does still roam around various places on the property. I will eventually have to train her to stay within the perimeter.

I think Mack is beginning to bond with the sheep. Moving him out of the field next to the house has sealed that deal. Before that move, the sheep were with Mack and Charlotte, but the calves were also in that field. Mack immediately bonded with the calves, but not the sheep. Moving the dogs and sheep to a separate paddock from the calves seems to have worked. Fingers crossed, so far it has worked. The sheep are still wary of the dogs. It will likely take months and months for them to become comfortable with Mack. I mentioned in a previous podcast that he is food aggressive. He has chased them away from his food multiple times. We are working on a system where the dogs can have their food and the other animals cannot get to it. The sheep are easily chased away but we really want them to get along with the dogs. Eventually, all of the cows and sheep will be together and the cows are not so easily chased away. And truly, the dogs should not have to fight for their food. Yet another plan is a work in progress. Scott is working on that today.

Goats I’ve gone back and forth about whether I want to bring goats back onto the homestead. I already decided that I want Kiko goats. They are very expensive goats. And when I say expensive, I mean very, very expensive. The kind of expense that would really hurt our finances.

I have put down a deposit on a trio of Kiko goats. It will be late summer, fall or even next spring before we have these goats. Two does and a buck as a starter herd is the plan. Not only is it imperative that the dogs begin guarding the sheep so I can feel confident they will guard the goats, but more training will be needed so that the dogs don’t harm the goats when they arrive. Thankfully, that is still quite a few months down the road. There should be plenty of time to get the dogs and sheep stabilized in their symbiotic relationship. Adding the goats will be just a short training period with the goats in the next field over where they can be seen but with no contact. After a few weeks, we would introduce them to the dogs with close supervision until we are comfortable that the dogs will accept them as part of the family.

More on the goats as that time gets closer.

Cows/Calves Luna went to a new home. We sold Luna and her bull calf to a lovely couple looking for a family milk cow that was not going to overwhelm them with milk. Luna was perfect for them. And her bull calf is going to be breeding their other cows. It was a great fit and I’m so glad that we could rehome her so well.

Since Luna is rehomed and Cookie finally had her calf, we are now milking three cows. Butter, Cookie and Claire. I make cheese on Mondays and the rest goes to the calves and fulfills the herd shares. All is going well with the cows at the moment.

AI for Spring 2023 Calves AI for birthing in March has already started. We AI’d eight cows. By Monday we will know whether we need to try again with any of these girls. If we see signs of any of them coming into heat again, we call the vet and she will try again.

We also have a tentative plan to breed one or two in the fall so that we have milk year-round. Perhaps if only one or two do not take, we will let one slide and try again in December for births in September 2023. And there is always Cookie. She calved so late that she did not make it into the initial AI session. At the moment, she is already slated for December AI. Of course, we can still change our mind at any time until mid-July. AI can be done as late as Mid-July for projected births no later than mid-April 2023. There are always so many decisions to be made.

Garden I’ll briefly mention the garden. Finally, the entire garden is planted. Yesterday I put in the last of the winter squash and melon seeds. I may plant a few more flowers, but the veggie part is done.

Tomatoes, Lima Beans, Eggplant and Chard I ended up with a lot more tomatoes than I had planned. Who knows that I am going to do with them? I have four beds of baby lima beans that are looking good. The eggplant is going to be stellar this year, as is the chard. The chard is pretty easy, but I must say I am more than pleased with the eggplant. I haven’t grown it in four or five years because of repeated failures. I had given up on being able to raise that vegetable. I’ll say it again, these plants look fantastic this year. This could be the year of my success with eggplant.

Summer Squash and Cucumber I also planted cucumber and summer squash which is also a first for several years. They have never done well for me. We shall see how they progress. It is too early to tell how they are going to do. We only transplanted my plant starts less than a week ago. I see many of them catching on, but time will tell.

Onions and Herbs The onions look fantastic. I also have cilantro, parsley, and peppers planted. The cilantro looks weak. That one I keep trying but cannot say I have been successful with it – YET. No basil. I only started Thai basil and I sold all of those plant starts at the farmer’s market. I may have to buy a plant or two of sweet basil just to refresh my stock of dried basil. We shall see.

Winter Squash/Pumpkin The last few beds have winter squash and pumpkin. Some of those are from seed which has not yet sprouted. I hope to see a jungle of plants out there in the next month.

Creamery As far as the creamery, Scott and I (mostly Scott) are putting up the ceilings in the barn and milking parlor area. He has finally gotten caught up on all of his other tasks and is moving ahead with completing the creamery. As usual, we are behind schedule, but you know what?, we will keep plugging along. It will get done, but on God’s timeline and now ours. That’s about all I have to say about the creamery today. I hope to have lots of updates on this topic in the next podcast. Let’s get on to the topic of the day.

Raising Animal Protein We have lots of resources that I’ve already talked about. As you can tell, there are always challenges, no matter how well you think you’ve laid out your plan. And every day brings new decisions that you never knew you would have to make. No matter how educated or prepared you think you are, just know that every day is a learning experience. You will never get it done, settled, never to change.

Large or Small to Start Unless you have previous experience with large animals, cows may not be your first goto animal for raising protein. My suggestion is to start with something smaller. Sheep and goats are smaller, but even smaller than that are chickens. Chickens are always a great place for anyone to start. Comparatively, they are easy. In many places, you can raise chickens in your backyard. If you have an HOA, maybe not, you may have to forgo the chickens, but there are other options. I’ll talk about some in a moment.

The thing to keep in mind with chickens is whether you are looking for egg or meat protein – or both. If you are looking for both, check out dual purpose birds. There are many other factors to take into consideration, but this one is the most important.

Choosing Chickens You don’t want to get caught up in exotic chickens, really cool looking chickens, that don’t produce the meat and eggs you require for your family. While many exotic-looking chickens can provide exactly what you need, it is important to check the statistics regarding the finished size of the bird and/or expected numbers of eggs per year. Some may be as little as 150 eggs per year, while others may produce nearly 300. Generally, the more eggs, the less body size. And vice-versa. More body size can produce significantly few eggs. It’s not 100% true, but a good rule of thumb. Rely on the published statistics for your chosen breed. While you may not buy from Stromberg’s or McMurray’s (those are the two biggest outfits that I know), they are a great resource for comparing one breed to another. They each have lots and lots of information about the chicken breeds they carry. It really helps in making your decision. Then you can choose who and where to get the chicks for your enterprise.

Once you’ve chosen your breed, the internet, in general, is your resource for details. Search engines are amazing for providing answers to specific questions. Just today, I looked up the age at which my chickens should start laying. For the Bresse it can be as early as four months old, while the Marans can be as late as six months old. I didn’t really consider that in my decision for which breed to choose, but it may be an important stat for you. How quickly can you begin to get eggs? Which breeds may have health issues? Are there any climate issues to consider based on where you live in the country? And so on. Choose your breed, but then read up on it to make sure it will be a good fit for you. And as always, you may make a mistake and need to start again. No problem. You won’t be able to think of every single question and get every choice correct the first time. As I said, every day is a learning experience.

You may consider ducks, though often we keep ducks just because they are cute and not so much for meat. Having said that, they do provide good meat and they come with their own set of challenges related to water. I don’t have any and can’t provide much more information than that. They always seem like more trouble than they are worth. Your mileage may vary.

Rabbits and Quail Other small animals to consider are rabbits and quail. Both of these can be grown in the smallest of environments. And an HOA will likely not even know you have them as long as you keep the manure cleaned up regularly. Both tend to produce a lot of odors from excrement. Out here, I can get away with any amount of odor I can stand. In an apartment or HOA subdivision, you will need to find ways to dispose of the manure likely on a daily basis. As with all animals, there is learning to be done, but both of these animals are relatively easy to raise.

Goats and Sheep I would say that the next largest animals up the scale are goats and sheep. Obviously, you need some land for this. I can’t imagine any HOA allowing grazing animals in your yard. But you also don’t need a huge amount of acreage for just a few sheep or goats. You will need fencing. If you keep them close to you, a family dog can often provide deterrents to predators such as other dogs and a coyote or two. An acre or two of good pasture will suffice for one to five goats and/or sheep. Of course, it depends on where you live, but supplementing with hay is always an option if you don’t have the grazing space. You’ll likely need hay even if you have the acreage.

Pigs Next up would be pigs. We haven’t given these guys a try yet, but it is only a matter of time. We have been so focused on the cows, sheep and goats that we simply haven’t had the time to get this enterprise started. You can also keep one pig in a relatively small area. They are generally friendly and easy to work with from everything I’ve seen. Of course, it depends on the particular animal. You could end up with a mean or unruly animal. Just like humans, there are all kinds of personalities out there. Visit the farm where you plan to purchase your pigs and see how they interact with them. Is the breed you are considering a docile breed? Will it do well on pasture. Sad as it is, there are some breeds that will require some confinement and lots of feed to live and grow. They have been bred to thrive in that environment. If you have woods, you have a great environment for raising pigs more naturally. This is another animal with which I have no experience, so I’m not going to say more here. Just listing it as an option for animal protein sources.

Bovine Animals If you are into the big animals, cows and even bison might be a good choice for you. Even with a cow, you can get by on a couple of acres. You’ll need more or less hay according to where you live. And as an aside, all of this info is for the US. I am definitely not your resource for anywhere outside the continental US. And I don’t have any info on raising bison, but there are plenty of them available out in the Oklahoma and Texas areas. They are a big, scary animal but it’s definitely doable. Check out Arms Family Homestead for info on bison.

How Much Do You Need? Anyway, as far as beef, one butchered cow will provide protein for at least a family of four for a year. It depends on how much meat that your family consumes and that in turn depends on their ages. A couple of teenagers and you need the whole cow. If your children are younger, you might only need ½ a cow. And you will need to factor in what other animal protein sources you have chosen to raise.

Now that I am on that subject, I’ll give you our stats and you can perhaps scale it up for you and your family. For the two of us in a year we plan for as much as ¼ cow, ½ pig, 1 lamb and 1 goat. That amount changes depending on which animals we have available at any given time. But if all things were equal, that is what I plan for the two of us for a year’s worth of animal protein. Add to that lots and lots and lots of eggs from the chickens. As far as chicken meat, I don’t have a very good idea of how much we consume. Unfortunately, I’ve been buying them at the grocery store at irregular times. Usually, when I’m shopping and think, “gee, I haven’t had chicken in a while” and then I buy one of those rotisserie ones. All of that is coming to an end soon, thank God. At the moment we don’t eat a lot of chicken simply because it requires that trip to town.

I’ve heard others plan the number of meat chickens from one a week to one a month. There are 52 weeks in the year and 12 months. Your needs will fall in there somewhere. And all of that has to change if chickens and rabbits are your main source of animal protein. You might need two a week or some other number. Make your best guess and then adjust each year as you narrow those numbers down for your changing family situation. Again, your plans will change as you learn.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I’m changing my schedule to make it easier for me to publish podcasts more often. There is always so much going on and the animals and gardens have first priority – and of course getting that creamery up and running. We will get there eventually. In the meantime, I’m assessing how I use my time and opening up more opportunities to share our homestead updates and a little bit of wisdom on how you might get started.

God willing, I think I’ve given you enough basics on animal protein sources to get you started. Shoot me an email with any questions you have about getting starting with growing your own animal protein for food. I’m always happy to take a few moments to respond. Tell me what you are trying to accomplish and I will try and provide some guidance or at the very least, where to find more information.

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Planting the garden this year is a little tricky. Each year I have to determine what vegetables I want to grow. I don’t plant everything. After years of just planting everything that caught my eye, I am now choosy about what I plant.

There are quite a few farm updates to talk about. Before I get to it, as always, I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I never want to take you for granted. Thank you so much for being here. Let’s get started on some homestead updates.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates It’s officially spring according to the calendar. We are still having quite a few cold days, but birthing is happening and planting the garden is on the horizon. We have calves, lambs and chicks in the incubator. Let’s start with the calves.

Cows and Calves We had and/or have four cows and/or heifers that were bred this year. Three have given birth, all within 8 days. That’s how AI works. Everyone is fertilized at the same time and the births come close together.

We have two bulls and a heifer so far. We bought Cookie and added her to the homestead last year. She was not bred with our other cows and her delivery date is sometime in April. So about two to three weeks before we have that last calf. Incidentally, we expect to breed seven cows and two heifers beginning the first week of June. We will have lots of calves, more calves next year than we have ever had on our homestead. Just in time for the cheesemaking to get into high gear. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The calves are beautiful and growing like weeds. We are still looking for names for the two bull calves, but the heifer is named Penny. You can see pics of these guys on our Locals.com community or on our Facebook page.

Sheep and Lambs As far as the sheep and lambs, the ewes were pasture bred. That means we stick the ram in there with them and he does his job according to their cycling schedule. Interestingly enough, all five ewes delivered within three days. They delivered even more closely than the AI’d cows. We had a total of eight but lost one that was part of a set of triples.

Stellar Ewe It is very unusual for ewes to deliver more than one lamb in their first season. One young lady had triplets. She is currently raising two of them and doing really well. I think we can probably expect triplets from her every year. The oldest ewe consistently has twins – really big twins. They were the last born and looked to be a week old compared to the others.

The breakdown on the lambs is four girls and three boys. We will be keeping the girls and enlarging our sheep flock. For quite a few years we have kept the flock small. But quite frankly, the market for lambs and goats is going crazy right now and we need the extra income to finish the creamery. And we really like these animals. It’s great that they can now support themselves and provide a bit of income. In the past, we worked at a break-even margin, eating a lot of the lamb ourselves. That does save money on groceries, so there is that.

Goats We have not had goats on the homestead for over a year. Next week we are visiting a nearby goat operation. They have registered Kiko goats. I’m not sure we will be able to get a starter herd this year, but we plan to go and see what she has and ask a lot of questions. They will be really expensive as goats go. We need to prepare and budget for that as well.

We keep goats for their meat of course, but they are also very useful in keeping the pastures cleaned up from unwanted brush and pine trees. Goats love woody stemmed plants. They will completely clear out all of the wild blackberries, wild rose, and generally all thorny plants that sheep and cows will not eat. It’s exciting to think about having these love creatures back on the homestead. I’ll keep you posted on when that might happen.

Quail and Chickens The quail are doing well. I will be hatching out at least one batch of quail in the near future. However, at the moment, I have two incubators running with two dozen chicken eggs in each. I’m so excited about having chickens.

American White Bresse I ordered fertile eggs instead of live birds. The reason was the cost for the breeds I chose. The first breed is call American White Bresse. They are a heritage breed that originated in France. Goes well with our French breed cows. Anyway, they are bred to forage well and are traditionally raised with their feed soaked in milk. Isn’t that cool. I always have skim milk after taking the cream for butter. Now we have yet another place the milk can go.

These birds are dual purpose. They lay lots and lots of eggs and also grow to a good size for meat. Another advantage is they reach their laying age about 6 to 8 weeks earlier than typical American dual-purpose chickens.

Black Copper Maran The other set of eggs are Black Copper Maran. These birds don’t get quite as large and I’m okay with that. I personally don’t care for the really large chickens. The cool thing about the Black Copper Maran is they have the darkest brown eggs available. They are milk chocolate colored. They are so beautiful. They also lay quite a few eggs and mature more quickly than American dual breeds.

The Black Copper Maran is also a French breed. Post-WWII France, the breed was endangered and close to extinction. The French Department of Ag rescued it and began a breeding program. Today, there are lots of varieties. The Black Copper Maran is still quite rare in the US. This is yet another expensive bird which is why I went with the eggs rather than trying to get chicks. The day-old chicks can cost up to $80 a piece. Two dozen eggs were about $85 I think, perhaps more with shipping.

Anyway, we will have baby chicks in a few days. If I get a 50% hatch rate or a dozen of each breed, I will be happy. That will be plenty of hens to lay eggs and the rest for meat. Then next year we raise more.

Orchard Scott has been working diligently in the orchard pruning and cleaning up old canes in the blackberry rows. He still has a long way to go. The trees are done and the blueberries are done.

Somewhere when he was working in the blueberries, he placed an order for more plants. There was a particular variety that did really well for us. He ordered 50 of those. That meant he had to dig 50 holes along with fertilizing and other soil treatments.

It’s raining today so the blackberries will have to wait still another day before he completes that trimming job. It has been years since they were pruned and cut back. The rows he has completed look fantastic. I look forward to lots of berries this year. The berries always grow better when the plants are trimmed and maintained. More energy can go into making fruit and not so much into keeping up old canes.

Garden The garden is still patiently waiting to be revived. Planting the garden is currently on hold. I have lettuce and onions ready to plant. Steps still needed there are getting the compost over to the garden and getting is sifted so it can be used as top dressing for each bed.

Last fall, Finn the wonderful livestock guardian dog, dug holes – really big holes – in a lot of the beds. There is a lot of work that needs to happen there. In total we have 20 beds and two long and thin areas that connect 10 boxes each. So, 10 boxes that are 3 feet wide and close to 7 feet long are all connected at one of the short ends. That continuous bed is 70 feet long and about 2 feet wide. And there are two sets of those.

I’m still not completely sure what I am planting in the 70 feet long areas. Last year it was 50 tomato plants down one side. The other had early green peas and then nothing for the rest of the year. I may plant flowers in there this year. Who knows? I still have time to make that happen. All 20 beds are planned. I’ll come back to that when I talk about today’s topic of what I am planting and why.

Creamery First, let me finish up the homestead updates with the creamery. We have lots and lots of materials all over the place. Scott ordered just about everything we need to complete this project. With prices skyrocketing, he ordered fast and furious to keep the cost as low as possible. It will cost a bit in interest, but nowhere near the cost of waiting as prices are still rising and sometimes nearly double what they were just a few months ago.

As soon as he finishes with the orchard and readying the garden, he will be hot and heavy on getting that creamery finished. We are looking for that to be before year end. Yay. It will be about 5 ½ years since we broke ground on it in the spring of 2017.

Let’s get on with planting the garden this year.

Planting the Garden What will we have and why?

Back to those long pieces that connect all the beds, the current plan is to have cherry tomatoes and cucumber plants along the orchard wall. I may need to start more cucumbers as I plan to sell some of those plants at the farmer’s market beginning in May. Now that I think about it, I may need to rethink how many plant-starts I have and get on the ball with planting more if needed.

All along the other wall will be Brussel sprouts. Scott loves these little cabbages and I want to see if I can grow them successfully. We do have problems with all sorts of pests that attack the cole crops. That’s c-o-l-e crops. At a basic level, they are all plants that belong to the mustard or brassica family. They descended from the cabbage. They grow better in cool weather. Some people think that is where Cole came from, but alas, no. Cole is a Latin word that means stem.

Cole Crops The most common plants in the Cole category are: broccoli, brussels sprout, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, turnips and watercress. We have tried most of these plants and have had consistent problems with the cabbage moth. I’m not sure what I will do this year to stave off this pest. What do you do? Anyone out there got some tips on this?

So that takes care of the two outlying beds. Now, for the 20 individual beds, 10 on each side. Right now, my plan is three beds of lettuce. For the most part, that will be sold at the farmer’s market. Three beds of spinach because Scott loves it. I haven’t ever successfully grown spinach so, fingers crossed, this will be the year I make a breakthrough on growing beautiful spinach.

I plan on a couple of beds of herbs including basil – two types – parsley, and cilantro. A bed of Swiss chard and one bed of eggplant. Again, Scott loves these. I have been quite successful with Swiss chard and I want to get better at growing eggplant. I was successful one year, but not in any successive year. We shall see how it goes this year.

Squash and Onions I will have three beds of onion. Only white onions this year. I have found they keep the best and it just doesn’t make sense to me to grow onions that go bad after only a short while, no matter how pretty red they are or how sweet the yellows may taste. I’ll have three beds of winter squash, spaghetti, acorn and butternut. We love squash. And finally, four – yes count them – four beds of lima beans. Last year it was green beans and crowder peas. The year before that it was various dried beans, red – black and white. This year is the year for lima beans.

Plants for Farmer’s Market Other things I’m growing for market are Jet Star tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers, summer squash (yellow crookneck, zucchini and white scallop) and herbs. I’m also going to start some flowers. I need to get going on that. Spring is moving along rapidly.

That’s about all I have time for right now. I still have lots to do before the day ends. Scott is in here waiting for me to finish so we can go milk cows. I love milking cows. It’s so peaceful.

Final Thoughts I hope you enjoyed getting up-to-date on the homestead and learning some about our method of madness in gardening. Planting the garden always encompasses many considerations. Perhaps my thought process is more complex or even less complex than yours. In the end, it is one of the most enjoyable times of my life is thinking about what my plan is and then executing that plan. And each year planting the garden will be different and I love it. Life on the homestead is always evolving. There is never a dull moment around here. Thanks so much for traveling along with me. Hope you tune next time as well. We love having you.

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Today I will be continuing the conversation on producing your own food. There is a lot to cover and what I can include in this podcast will only whet your appetite for more. Growing food for you and your family is one of the most satisfying occupations in the world. That is of course in my humble opinion. I’ll keep talking about it as long as you want to keep listening to it.

Welcome new listeners and welcome back veteran homestead-loving regulars. Thank you so much for stopping by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. There are so many exciting things happening around the homestead. Let’

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let’s start with homestead updates. I have some fantastic news. Well, it’s fantastic for us. I’ll save it for last, just before I get into the next “producing your own food” segment.

Cows We have three cows and one heifer that are scheduled to give birth very soon. Claire and Butter are two of the cows, Luna is the heifer. All of these girls are due sometime around the 23rd of March. Our newest cow, Cookie, is due in mid-April.

I forgot to tell you all about Cookie in the last podcast. She is our latest addition to the homestead. Cookie is about 4 years old. We were a little concerned about meeting our needs for milk in the early spring so we started looking around for a good milking girl to add, at least temporarily, until we get our younger girls bred and producing milk.

Cookie is a great cow. She is a from an organic dairy about an hour and a half from us. She is mostly jersey but has some guernsey in her as well. Originally, she was a 4-H show cow. That makes her very friendly and an attention seeker. We love her already. And it looks like she integrated into the herd without issue.

Sheep We expect lambs in the next two weeks. There are five ewes that are currently pregnant. Two of them are older and I expect at least one of those girls to have twins. The other three are just about a year old. Normal birthing is for yearlings to have a single lamb. We are looking for five to seven lambs this season.

Dogs Finn and Charlotte are on patrol duty for keeping these guys safe. Finn is still escaping regularly and we are working on a training regime for him. Every time he goes where he is not supposed to be, he gets put on a tether for two days. We are hoping this will be effective. However, it is well known that any dog with Great Pyrenees genetics will tend to roam. Recently, he hasn’t been roaming outside of the perimeter fences, but we really want to train him to stay in the area he is assigned. We shall see how it all works out. It may be that we simply have to live with him going wherever he wants, whenever he wants. It is obviously dangerous for him, but we do not want to deflate his spirit and ruin him as a livestock guardian dog. I hope that the birth of the new lambs will give him better incentive to stay with his charges. We shall see.

Quail The quail seem to cause me perpetual grief. So many people love walking in nature and I do too. It seems so peaceful and calm and beautiful. The true reality is that nature has a really brutal side to it. You all know this. Storms and drought and fires and floods are all daily happenings around the world. What we tend to overlook is how brutal animals can be with each other. The quail have been a real challenge in this area.

After months of no issues, all of a sudden, I might have one, two, three birds that are brutally attacked by the others in the cage. It is heartbreaking. I then have to make special arrangements for healing of these unfortunately bullied birds. If I can find the culprit, I separate her from the rest. One dilemma is where do I keep all of these? What quarters do I have available for housing?

Quail Clinic Right now, I have two roosters in the bottom right cage. One is in the main part and the other is in the enclosed box the hens use for laying eggs and all use for taking dust baths. The one in the main part of the cage was not too badly injured. The other was in really bad shape. Yesterday it looked like he had his eyesight back in at least one eye. This is after three or four days of complete blindness. I’m happy he is healing. I still don’t know what I’m going to do with these two guys after they are healed. That cage is meant for hens who are laying eggs.

I believe I found the perpetrator. I took a chance and put her in another cage. I took out the rooster in that cage and put him in another cage. That was risky also. It is always risky to put one bird or another into a group of strangers. So far, after a few days of this setup, there have been no more incidents. But I have a cage of hens with no rooster. That means eggs, but no fertility. Do I dare put a rooster back in there with the mad hen? I know, you probably think I should just cull her and be done with it. I agree, though the problem I have is that one quail is barely enough for one child. We need three or four to make a meal. I could take the two injured roosters as well. But the risk there is I need them for breeding later. It’s all so complicated. So, what is the solution?

Chickens Well, the solution is for me to give up on quail altogether. Maybe another could handle it, but not me. We have ordered baby chicks which should arrive around the first or second week of April. It will take them many months to get large enough to provide us with eggs. I will deal with the quail until then. Once the chickens are grown and producing eggs, all of the quail will go to freezer camp. Their cage will be repurposed. Perhaps at a later date we will add rabbits to the homestead and this will be the perfect housing for them.

I shopped in detail and we discussed at length which chicken breed we wanted to raise. In the end, we settled on two breeds. First the Barred Plymouth Rock. These are black and white spotted chickens. They lay brown eggs. Second the White Plymouth Rock. These are pure white and they also lay brown eggs.

Dual-Breed Chickens There were several reasons for choosing these two breeds. The first and most important reason is that they are what is called “dual-breed” chickens. Like our cows that are abundant in meat and milk, these chickens excel at producing both meat and eggs. Both breeds produce large brown eggs and top out in weight at nearly the same size.

I thought I had decided on a different breed, the Buff Orpington. I loved their beautiful tan color and fluffy look. However, after comparing breeds, it became obvious that the Buff Orpington, while dual-purpose, leaned toward meat more than eggs. They produced an equal number of eggs to the Plymouth Rocks, but medium rather than large. And the fully grown Buff Orpington is significantly larger than the Plymouth Rock breeds. I’m very happy with my choice. Eggs were the most important to us, but not to the exclusion of meat.

Egg Layers There is a breed of chicken called Easter egg. They lay multiple colors of eggs. Then there are the really productive egg layers, but the birds don’t put on meat like the dual-purpose breeds. I may check them out in the future because, as I said, our primary need is for eggs. And I may raise a few high producing egg layers and see how the carcass compares with the dual-breed chickens. It’s a whole new adventure.

Scott has been watching videos on various types of chicken coops. Our goal here is to provide just enough protection for two or three years. So a simpler, more stream-lined chicken coop is in order. We want something that can be completed in a day or two. Later, after the creamery is built, Scott can spend some time creating the perfect chicken coop complete with an attached garden shed. The coop will be in the garden area with immediate access to the orchard. This is for free-range grass grazing in the orchard and pest control in both areas.

Let’s move on to my continuing series on producing your own food. Animals and poultry will come later. Right now, we are focusing mostly on vegetables in the garden.

Producing Your Own Food Today I am going to focus on the planning aspect of gardening. I’ve talked about deciding what kind of planting you will do – container, raised beds, row crops and so on. Last time I touched on starting plants from seeds. But how do you decide exactly what you are going to put in those beds and containers and seed starting plugs?

Planning The first and most important thing you need to hear is to grow what you like to eat. There is no point growing lots and lots of gorgeous lettuce if you only eat salad once every two weeks. And while peppers are easy to grow, how many do you think you will use? And what kinds?

These are decisions that need to be made before you go into your big box store and start looking at those rows and rows of seeds. Decide before you open that giant catalog. I can’t tell you how much I love looking at those different plants and all of the various vegetables that can be grown. It is really fun – and it is so easy to get bogged down in the details and endless options.

Tips Here are some tips. If you are going to grow zucchini, start small with one or two plants. Some kinds of vegetables produce all summer long. Zucchini, yellow squash and the various white scallop squash are examples. Even a couple of each of these plants will sometimes be overwhelming for two people. By the end of the season, you may never want to see another zucchini again. On the up side, I guarantee you that if you love this veggie, this aversion will dissipate to nothing over the winter. By spring you will be chomping at the bit to grow it again.

While lettuce and tomatoes sound great for your salad, they are not necessarily complimentary in the real world. Lettuce likes cool weather and turns bitter in the hot summer and will bolt. That means it goes to seed and stops producing. On the other hand, it’s not unusual in this part of the country to not get your first tomato until July. The lettuce is long gone. Of course, you can grow late summer/early fall lettuce and likely still have tomatoes to go in your salad. Eating with the seasons is a bit of a learning curve and can catch first-time gardeners by surprise. While I said grow what you like to eat, you might find that what you like to eat doesn’t look quite the same in the garden as it does on the grocery shelf.

How Much to Grow Let’s see, what else? There is no good solution to knowing how much you should grow of any given vegetable. While crop reports and projected crop yields may give you an idea, your soil, your location in the world, your average weather, the fertilization schedule, pest attacks all contribute to outcome of your crop. Pest and weeds are a greater problem in infertile soil. That means in the beginning, before your soil is built to perfection, you can expect lower yields. Every year I expect greater yields. I learn more about when and how much to water, how much fertilizer is required and how often. The weather is different each and every year and that will never change.

So how do you plan for how much to grow? Some of that is limited by the space you intend to use. Beans come in a packet that usually has about 40 seeds. Plant one packet and see what it produces. Learn about how to grow the plant before settling on how much you will grow. Use your first year or two or three to simply learn how to grow things.

Tomatoes I’ll give some examples with a raised bed garden system with a bit of a ground crop on the side. Let’s start with tomatoes. One cherry tomato plant will provide a constant supply of candy all summer long. You might plant one or two more if you have several kids that like tomatoes. Then you might want a few plants that produce a good slicing tomato. You will find these distinctions clearly identified in your seed catalogs. Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, paste tomatoes, tomatillos. One other thing about tomatoes. There are determinant and indeterminant species. Determinant plants will produce all of their tomatoes at once and stop producing. Indeterminant tomatoes produce over and over and over all summer. They also grow very large plants with lots of greenery and needs a couple of feet of space between them. Don’t be fooled by how small they are when they are first put in the ground. These are very large plants. Only grow paste tomatoes if you plan on trying your hand at making tomato sauce, salsa, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, bar-b-q sauce, etc.

Peppers Peppers: Keep your choices down to a few. There are so many different kinds of peppers. And I must admit, they are very fun to grow. I love growing peppers. But what do you do with all of them? I grow lots of green bell peppers. At harvest time, I chop and freeze lots of them and use them throughout the winter and spring any time I need chopped peppers for a recipe. Hot peppers are a different story. Cayenne peppers can be threaded together and dried. They will last a very long time and it’s easy to reach up and grab a pepper and crush it into whatever dish you are creating. Jalapenos can be pickled. Last year I grew Pepperoncini and pickled those. Banana peppers are easy to grow. I also chop and freeze them when I get too many.

Lettuce Lettuce: This is a tough one for me. There are just too many options here. If you are new to garden grown lettuce, you may need to do a lot of reading. In the grocery store you usually have access to ice berg lettuce (which no one that I know grow in their garden), large heads of romaine lettuce, and usually a green and/or red leaf lettuce. There are sealed packages of greens that are also available now that can give you a bit more of an idea of loose-leaf greens. All of these are available in your seed catalog. The romaine lettuces are usually smaller and yummier than the large heads you see in the grocery store. You know the ones that have that big white stem that you often cut out. Garden varieties will have smaller, leafier greens.

There is a variety of garden lettuce that I just love. It is called butter head. These are head lettuces but the heads are really quite small and very loose. Butter crunch lettuce is probably my absolute favorite lettuce to grow and eat.

Once you get to the loose-leaf lettuces, the variations are endless. These lettuces are sometimes called cut and come again. You cut most of the leaves off and leave the plant to grow more leaves. There are smooth leaf, ruffled leaf, curly leaf, red leaf, green leaf, purple leaf, and more. I gave up a long time ago trying to grow individual kinds and just opt for one of the salad blends.

Succession plant your lettuce. What I mean by that is you decide how much space you will use and then divide that up into four to six sections. Plant one section, wait a week to 10 days and plant again. Do that until all sections are planted. Like the first section will be producing about the time the last one just gets started. That will space out your lettuce over time so it does not overwhelm you all at once.

Beans Beans: Our 3-foot by 8-foot raised beds require at least two packages of beans for a full planting. This is another place where you can try all sorts of beans just for the fun of it. And you may find you have a favorite that is simply not available at the local grocery where you a limited to green beans. There are purple beans – though they cook up green. Some are as long as 3-feet. I forget what those are called. I stuck with tried and true favorites with a few purple and yellow wax beans thrown in for fun.

Keep an eye out for “bush beans” and “pole beans”. I stick with bush beans. I have tried various methods of growing pole beans and always come back to the bush bean. Pole beans require support and they can climb ten feet or more. My mother had a really neat setup. Some day I may try it myself. She had a metal pole about ten feet sticking out of the ground. At the top my dad somehow mounted a bicycle wheel like a little flat top. Mom would tie string to the bicycle wheel and secure it in the ground with a tent stake. All the way around and when she was done it looked like a string teepee. She planted the pole beans at the tent stakes and those beans would climb right up those strings to the top and beyond.

Squash Squash: again. Start with one zucchini, one yellow and perhaps one scallop. Winter squash is something else. Squash, melons, watermelon and pumpkins require lots of space. They will spread all over the place. For instance, in our raised bed system, I might have two to four plants in one bed. It will cover that bed, flow over the sides and into the walkways. I’ll keep moving the spreading vines back up onto the bed, but if it were only on the ground, I would just let it run all over. I can grow small pumpkins in the raised beds, but most pumpkins need at least a six-foot-by-six-foot area for each plant. Same with watermelon. These would be challenging for someone trying to container garden on their apartment balcony.

There really are too many options for me to cover in this short podcast. I hope I’ve given you some food for thought and if you have questions email me or contact me on our Locals page. That’s peacefulheartfarm.locals.com.

More Tips Other things to consider. Think about buying open pollinated seeds as you can save them and not have to buy the next year. That is another learning curve for some things and you may not be ready for that, but consider it.

I talked about tomatoes, peppers, beans and squash because they are easy plants to start with. Seed saving is also relatively easy with these plants, though squash has a trick to it.

Once you see how to grow things you like and you’ve whittled down what you intend to grow into the future, then you can decide how much you think you need – and then you will need to double it if you plan to save food for the winter. You can always give it away to family or those in need if you over produce. Trust me, you will need more than you think if you plan to feed your family throughout the year.

I know I talked about starting seeds indoors in the last podcast, but buying plant starts instead of trying to start from seed is a great option when you are just getting started. It also gives you the freedom to select lots of varieties without buying a package of seeds just to try one plant variety.

That really is all I have time for and please visit our locals page and start a conversation to get more information. That’s peacefulheartfarm.locals.com.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. Let me know if I’m missing any animal updates. I didn’t get to the creamery today so I’ll give that special attention next week. Likely, we will have babies next time I do a podcast. That means spring is coming. And I just love this time of year.

I hope the gardening information is useful. Let me know if I can give you more information. There are likely many who listen that can also provide guidance over on the Locals platform.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Today, I’ll follow up on the basics of getting started with gardening with an intro to seed-starting indoors ahead of planting in the garden when the weather warms. But before we get to that, more homestead updates are in order. I’ll be talking about our beautiful livestock guardian dogs for the most part. There is so much to share about these fantastic dogs.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I have a bit of cow news that I’ll add at the end. Let’s talk about the dogs.

Our Livestock Guardian Dogs We have added two new wonderful dogs to our homestead. I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am about these beasties, Finnigan (Finn for short) and Charlotte. We purchased them from a fellow vendor at the market who is scaling down and exiting their business. They were guarding chickens and turkeys. We don’t have these kinds of birds yet but we will at some point. It’s nice to know that we have dogs that have at least some experience with poultry. It can be hard for livestock guardian dogs to learn how to guard and not chase and chew on poultry.

Finn is ½ Great Pyrenees and ½ Anatolian Shepherd. He is a big baby. Loves to have his tummy rubbed. Follows us everywhere. We have had these guys since mid-October so they are still learning about us and the sheep.

They are kept exclusively with the sheep. At first, we had to hold Finn in a fenced area next to the sheep because he was chasing them all over the place. He has since proven he can be trusted to not run them to death and now resides with them and Charlotte. I have not seen much evidence that the dogs have bonded with the sheep. That will come in time. Right now, they are learning to love us and we definitely love them.

Charlotte Charlotte is a Great Pyrenees. She is the most beautiful dog I have ever seen. Well maybe I’m biased. For whatever reason, she is very shy of humans. At first, I thought she had been mistreated. Lately though, I’m thinking she was not socialized to humans at an early age. She just has an innate mistrust of humans. She is not aggressive or anything. It’s just that we cannot walk up to her and pet her.

The first time I was able to pet her was when the vet was here for a general exam and heart worm tests. While the vet was working on Finn, Charlotte came over next to me and was kind of hiding behind me. I was able to pet her and hug her. Alas, it was only for the moment when she thought she needed protection and Finn was not only unavailable, but may have needed protection himself, in her mind.

Getting to Know Each Other From the beginning, she would come up and quickly take a biscuit from my hand as long as I had Finn between us. I reached over his back and she would take the biscuit and run off to chomp on it. A few days ago, she started coming up without Finn between us. I still can’t just walk up to her but she has improved greatly in just a couple of months. Yesterday I was able to pet her and give her some love. She is tied on a lead at the moment and allowed me to walk up to her fairly easily. It is so satisfying to finally be able to love on her. For weeks and weeks, she held back and just watched Finn get petted and babied and loved. Now she is getting some of that.

She is scheduled to be spayed next week. We don’t like having her tied up, but she has escaped twice in the past couple of weeks. The Great Pyrenees breed is harder to contain than goats. Who knew? Well, I knew there was an issue with roaming with this breed. However, I had no idea they were so successful as escape artists. We have been so concerned that she will escape and get pregnant. I’ll be so glad when this escape artist is safe from pregnancy.

Finnigan (Finn) Now let’s talk about Finn. That’s short for Finnigan. He is such a sweetie – as long as you are not the veterinarian. He does not like the vet. Yesterday, he showed her his teeth and growled relentlessly. Even with me standing there assuring him it was okay, he was in full protect mode. She is a brave vet and also quite familiar with working with livestock guardian dogs that are aggressive with her. We were able to get their vaccines done without much incident. I just had to be very careful to have him contained and tied before she approached. A quick stick in the rear and it was done.

Normally, we can introduce him to new people and he is fine with them. Though trusting him with someone new without us being very close is never allowed. He is very protective of us. And such a big baby when interacting with us. He loves to lay down on the ground belly up, begging for a rub. Brushing and combing him is also something he enjoys.

Escaping We love both of these animals, but they have been causing us grief when they escape. I mentioned Charlotte escaping. She is the leader in that regard. Once she makes it out, she has shown him the way. For the most part, he is the leader. Only in creating the escape path does she lead.

The first time they escaped, she returned home sometime overnight. Finn was found about 5 or 6 miles away. He was hanging out around a local farmer’s barn. After a few hours, the farmer ventured close enough to read his collar. We have a large yellow tag on all of our dogs that has our farm name and phone number plainly displayed. Finn allowed him close and he got our phone number. I was so relived to get that call. He was missing nearly 24 hours. We had Facebook messages posted to our friends.

The local radio station also broadcast it. We know this because the second time they escaped, another local farmer, only a quarter mile away this time, remembered hearing it on the radio and gave us a call. They were only gone for a couple of hours that time and Scott walked them home on a leash. Unfortunately for Charlotte, we were done with worrying ourselves over them. She is secured until her surgery next week.

Mack We have one other dog, Mack. He is now comfortably bonded with the cows and calves. We started him with the sheep, but he also chased them. Mack is just over 2-years-old and still exhibits puppy behavior from time-to-time. As we knew the other two dogs were coming, we decided to try and get him bonded with the cows and save the intense sheep training for the older dogs – Finn and Charlotte.

He was fairly easy to acclimate with our cows. We started with a few calves from this year and then added the yearlings. Once he got comfortable with all of them, we added the three new heifers I talked about in the last podcast. And finally, all of the big girls were added to the mix. He is very comfortable with his new charges and takes his responsibilities quite seriously. When we are looking for him, we simply find out where the cows are hanging out and he is sure to be close by.

Mack is also a sweetheart and also a loaner. He is very comfortable on his own. Where Finn and Charlotte want more attention, he is fine with seeing us once a day with his food and some petting. He was born and raised with sheep and is used to being completely on his own. The only issue we have with him is his coat mats so easily. At this point, he is matted all over and will likely need some serious trimming in the spring. After consulting with the vet, it looks like he will likely get a spring trim every year. We can comb him out regularly, but he is still going to get mats that will need to be cut out. It’s just the nature of his coat. The fine undercoat is very similar to that of our cashmere goats. It is so fine, that rolling it between your fingers makes it instantly matted.

We love him very much and he is definitely worth this extra effort. Let’s talk about the sheep.

Sheep I briefly mentioned the dogs being in with the sheep. Did I mention in a previous podcast that we had replaced some of our sheep? I can’t remember. Anyway, we purchased registered stock from a local farmer and now have five breeding ewes, one breeding ram and a whether that will go to market soon.

When the Finn and Charlotte first arrived, they were both in a separate pen next to the sheep. The new sheep, who had been raised around dogs, would lay down just outside their fence. Then we put the dogs in with the sheep and all of that changed. Finn chased them and the veterans who had already been chased multiple times by stray dogs showed the new girls and guy how to hide in the woods. Even after putting Finn back in the separate pen, they pretty much kept their distance from the dogs. That was a small step backward.

Dogs are Okay In an attempt to get the dogs to attach to the sheep and to get the sheep to overcome their fear of the dogs, we began feeding the sheep a little treat each evening. This seemed to work. Number one, Finn saw that we care for them and does not chase them anymore. The sheep were still very standoffish at first and would watch every move that Finn made. In the evening we let him lose in the field. We would supervise him either on a leash or let him run freely and watch him closely. After a few times of getting their special treats, the sheep no longer warily watched Finn’s every move. In fact, they come right up to where he is to get their food. They are jostling around with each other trying to get their head in the feed trough. We feed both the dogs and sheep within a few feet of each other. The sheep have now become so friendly that we can actually touch them a little bit while they eat. Once they are done eating, they still go back to the woods. But they are calm about it and do not stand up with their ears pricked forward listening for the evil beastie. They will calmly lay down and chew their cud.

They are all together now. During the day, I can see both of the dogs sleeping in the field and the sheep wandering around and grazing. The day I am looking for is the one where the sheep let the dogs lay down next to them. I plan on keeping them close where I can watch everything until well after the lambs are born in the spring. That may be a great challenge for the dogs. New animals and blood and afterbirth and so on. Hopefully, they will see the new lambs need to be protected and not eaten. That’s a worry for another day. God gives us each day in its turn. Right now, we are happy with how things are progressing.

Creamery I cannot tell you how many hours and hours of work Scott has put in on material lists. Prices for construction materials are skyrocketing so we are trying to buy all materials now, though it may be months before they are installed. Ceiling panels for the milking parlor are the same material as the roof. Quotes showed now double the price. Scott did get a price break and got it down to perhaps 1 ½ times the price he paid last year. That has been delivered.

Meetings with the power company and propane gas representatives have been accomplished and orders placed for materials. Electrical wiring and conduit and all the bits and pieces for that project have been ordered. I believe Scott is still chasing down some of those parts – again availability is an issue for some things. He might even have gotten the flooring materials ordered. Are you starting to get the picture of how much time he has spent thinking and thinking and calculating and thinking and calculating some more in order to accomplish this monumental task?

The plumbing is going to be contracted out. We shall see what the estimates are for that bit of work. I don’t know what his plans are about whether the commercial kitchen will be plumbed and outfitted at this time. We are just ready to get this project completed and to get started selling our cheese to the public. The fifth year of construction just began. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Starting Plants Indoors Following up on the last podcast where I talked about getting the soil ready and improving it over the years, I want to touch on what it takes to start plants indoors. The goal is to get them large enough and healthy enough to plant out in the garden when the ground temperature has reached the proper level.

The first step is calculating when to start them. Some plants require six weeks of growth and others eight weeks or more. For instance, tomatoes and peppers are on the eight weeks side of that calculation and summer squash and melons hang around closer to the six weeks mark. If want to venture into celery, that may require as many as 12 weeks of indoor growth along with repotting and so on. Perhaps save that for after you have a year or two of success with other plants. I do recommend getting to the point of growing your own celery. It’s not commonly grown but it is so good. That tasteless stuff purchased from your local grocery store will fall by the wayside once you know how to grow your own.

To recap, read the descriptions on what you plan to grow. They will clearly state how many weeks ahead of last frost date to start your plants. Last frost date is determined by where you live in the US. It is divided into “zones” with zone one being the farthest north and zone 8 and 9 are way down in Florida. Here in southwestern Virginia, we are in Zone 7A. Just a few miles from us, the elevation is significantly higher and those living up the mountain are firmly in Zone 6. For Zone 7, the last frost date is April 15th. For Zone 6, I believe it is May 1st. Not sure on that as it is not my zone. Look up USDA planting zones to find out where you fall in the schemes of things.

USDA Zones Once you have your USDA zone identified, you have your first and last frost dates. And let me be clear on this. When they say last and/or first frost dates, what they are referring to is the approximate date when the chance of frost is 50%. You can have a last frost after the official date, which can be devastating to whatever you have already planted outside. Same for first frost date in the fall. You can have plants still out in the garden that you hope to harvest before the first frost comes. It can come earlier than expected and ruin your fall harvest.

Now that you have all of that straight, you will count back from your last frost date the number of weeks recommended to grow your indoor seedlings. I usually transplant my tomatoes out into the garden two weeks after the expected last frost date. That is around the 1st week of May. I count back eight weeks from the first of May and that will be when I want my tomato plants to be started. Check your package instructions. No matter the plant, it is generally clearly stated when is the best time to plant outside and how many weeks to grow the plants indoors prior to transplanting outside. Post on Locals if you have questions.

Seed Starting Mix Purchase good organic seed starting mix. There are all kinds of bags of potting mix and planting mix and garden soil and so on at your local Big Box stores and even more choices on line. You are looking specifically for “seed starting mix”. Jiffy and Miracle Grow are popular organic brands. There are others. Just make sure it is seed starting mix.

Decide how many tomato, pepper, lettuce, squash, etc plants that you plan on growing in your garden. I try to start that many seeds for each item plus 25%. So, if I want four tomato plants, I start five or maybe even six. It’s nature. Not all seeds will sprout and some plants may be obviously weak. Strong plants are important. Once you know how many of each plant you intend to start from seed, you will have a better idea of how many containers you need.

Filling Containers For planting containers, I use the 6-cell seed starting trays. They are about an inch and a half square and about two inches deep. It is beneficial to also have purchased plant trays that hold the 6-cell containers. These all come in standard sizes. The standard tray will hold 12 of the 6-cell containers. That’s 72 plants in one tray. There are other sizes of pots you can buy, but this is my choice for starting from seed. Once the seeds have reached a larger size, I transplant them into 2” x 2” containers. Each of the standard sized trays will hold 32 of the 2” x 2” pots. Additionally, you will want those clear plastic covers. Sometimes they come with the tray and sometimes you need to purchase them separately. You will need them.

You have a couple of choices about filling your containers. There is the option to fill each cell with dry mix and add water or another option is to wet the seed starting mix first and fill the cells with damp soil. I’ll leave that to you. I like to fill it dry and add water after. In either case, give yourself time to do this right. It takes some time for the seed starting mix to absorb the water. You want it just damp enough to clump together but not soggy. When wetting it ahead of time, don’t get in a hurry. Add a good amount of water and wait for it to incorporate fully before adding more. Keep it up until you reach the consistency you desire. If adding water after the fact, I use a two-step method. I wet from the top and then add water to the tray. The dry mix will pull the water up from the bottom. You’ll want to get good at adding water to the tray. It is the preferred method of adding water once your plants have sprouted. More on that later.

Planting the Seeds Once you have the soil in the containers and dampened, you are ready to add the seeds. Many seeds are tiny and it is hard to get just one or two in the cell. Don’t worry about it. If you have several that sprout, you can thin them out by pulling the weakest sprouts out and focusing on the strongest for each cell. Tiny seeds can be laid on the surface and then sprinkled with a little dry soil. With a spray-mister you can dampen this additional layer after you have filled all the trays. I plant larger seeds by making an indentation in the seed mix with a pencil or small stick, placing the seed or seeds and gently moving the dampened soil over the seed.

The rule of thumb is that seeds are planted at a depth equal to their diameter. Lettuce seeds are laid on top of the soil. I use the pencil idea for tomatoes and peppers. Cilantro is planted a little deeper as the seed is even larger than the tomato seed. Each seed has just enough energy within it to push above the soil and begin to get sunlight. If a seed is planted too deep, it will run out of energy before reaching the surface. If planted too shallow, its roots may not get a good grip on the soil which makes a weak plant. Planting too deep has always been a bigger problem for me. I can always add soil if a seed sprouts on the surface.

Cover, Wait, then Fertilize Once you have all of your precious seeds nestled into the potting mix, you will want to cover that tray with the plastic cover. This keeps the moisture high. Now we wait. I’ve had seeds sprout within days that the package said would take 7 to 10 days. You just never know. Check daily. Some seeds require 2 weeks or more to sprout. Do not give up too early. Once the seeds sprout, take the plastic covers off. You want to let the air circulate. Molds can kill off your seedlings overnight.

Once your seedlings have their first set of real leaves, it’s time to fertilize. There is usually a pair of initial leaves that sprout. They are generally roundish. After a day or two, a second set of leave will sprout that are usually shaped differently, more in line with a full-grown leaf of the plant. Look for leaves three and four coming up out of the center. You will see what I mean. To fertilize, I use fish emulsion in a spray mister. My particular mister model has a stream setting. I mix the fish emulsion and spray right at the base of the stem. Just one or two squirts is plenty. This fertilization is important at this stage. Do not leave out this step.

Light and Water Now you are cooking. Keep lights on your plants 12 to 14 hours. Water about once per week. Don’t let the seeding starting mix completely dry out. Don’t make it too wet. Remember the mold. I like to water from the bottom as it encourages the roots to reach down for the water. It’s also easier than trying to spray-mist those delicate seedlings when they first sprout. It’s so easy to just drown them with even the smallest of squirts.

Okay, that will get you started. I’m going to put together a more comprehensive list of materials and such to help with the planning stages as this was more focused on the actual planting. You will find that information at peacefulheartfarm.locals.com.

Final Thoughts And we are done for this podcast. I still have lots more updates on the homestead to share. I hope you enjoyed the update on the livestock guardian dogs. I never thought I would love dogs so much. But I truly enjoy these wonderful animals. I was so worried I would be a really bad dog owner, not knowing anything about raising dogs. As per our usual, we read a lot, asked lots of questions and found that it was not as hard as I thought. Oh, for sure, there are challenges we are facing, but I feel up to the task. The vet has helped tremendously. I can always ask the expert if I ever have any doubts.

It's not quite time to get started with the garden yet, and I hope this podcast topic is just in time to get you in the mood for the planning parts. We will start around the end of March, perhaps a little earlier. We shall see. It all depends on what I decide on for the garden this year.

I hope you will check out our Locals page. Again, that’s peacefulheartfarm.locals.com. You can support us there either financially or just by visiting us and sharing this post on your social media pages.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please, SUBSCRIBE on your favorite platform and remember to give us a 5-star rating and review. Reviews are important to expand our reach. If you like this content and want to help out the show, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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I’m back, finally with a new year, new projects. Hope you are doing well. I hope you had wonderful Christmas and New Year celebrations with your families and friends. It has been four months since I’ve talked with you all. It takes a great deal of time, energy and money to make this podcast happen. More on how you can support us later in the podcast. For right now I want to say how much I appreciate all of you. I’m putting forth the effort to get back on track and to once again interact with all of you. I’ve been slacking and you deserve more from me. We’ve all been lonely and isolated these past two years. I intend to bring a little bit of love and light into each of your lives.

I’ve always talked about tradition and the value of tradition. From summer 2021 into winter 2022, I’ve come to appreciate God and our Lord Jesus Christ in a deeper fashion. Probably none of you know that I am Catholic. If you do know that, it will probably not surprise you that I attend the Traditional Latin Mass. It’s just another place that tradition permeates my life. I’ll continue to talk about traditional homestead living and our traditional raw milk products and artisan cheese. But don’t be surprised if you hear more exclamations like glory to God or praise God or praise Jesus. We all need more reminders that we are loved.

Locals I’ve started a Locals community. It’s a place where we can come together and talk about whatever we want. There is no censorship. Think along the lines of a Facebook Group page. Everyone is posting, commenting and supporting one another. There is no cost to become a member and get access to these podcasts as well as select other content. Pictures of the animals I talk about. Maybe even some short videos.

In order to support me and this podcast, I’m looking for people to become paid subscribers. The biggest advantage you have in becoming a paid subscriber is that because there is a little bit of financial investment, there are no trolls. Should someone be willing to paying the minimal monthly fee only to come in an harass our community, I can remove them. We have complete autonomy within our community. And no one is going to collect your data and sell it for advertising. That’s not what Locals is about. In fact, it is designed to free us from that intrusion into our personal lives by technical oligarchs getting rich from our love for each other. I urge you to check it out. Support this podcast by becoming a paid subscriber – or just enjoy the free stuff. That’s perfectly fine too.

I’m considering starting a subscription-only group of followers over on the Locals platform for those that are looking for more faith in their daily lives. Whether you have your own homestead, dream of having one or are perfectly satisfied living the suburbs and purchasing food from your local farmer, faith plays a part in all our lives. And definitely let me know if you are interested in participating in religious conversation in an interactive way on the Locals platform. I’m still trying to figure out how the plat form will allow me to separate this content from the rest. Sort of like how to make a playlist for specific content topics.

Again, to support the show, become a paid subscriber. Again, it’s not required. However, when I make a post, a paid subscriber (which is $5 per month) can do more than comment. You can make your own post on the topic or post o a topic of your choice to start a conversation. Other paid subscribers can comment on your posts and/or mine. It is a community. Enough of all that. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have trouble figuring out what you need to do, email me (at email address).

Let’s get on with the podcast.

Appreciation for All of You It has been about four months since I’ve talked with you all. There is so much that has happened I can’t possibly just pick up where I left off last fall and go forward. Nope, I’m just going to start from where we are and go from there. If there is something I’ve talked about in a previous episode that is still hanging in the air that you need an update on, just let me know in an email. Messaging is also available on Locals for paid subscribers and free on our Facebook page. Just type in Peaceful Heart Farm in either platform and we should pop right up.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates It’s 2022. Scott is healing well. I’m still a little unsettled but on the upswing at the moment. There is so much going on I hardly know where to begin. As usual, the cows are the stars. But keep listening. I can only do so much in one podcast. While today may be dedicated to the cows, I’ve got some wonderful dog and sheep tales to tell. I’m going to keep to the cows in this podcast and expand to the others animals as I go along so you can all catch up with the homestead’s evolution.

Additionally, I’m going to start a series on developing your own food production system. Today I will begin with the basics of gardening. But first, the cows.

Cows If you are a veteran listener, you already know about our girls. For the newbies, here is a rundown of our Normande and Jersey girls.

Claire and Buttercup are the oldest Normande girls. They were the original stock we purchased way back in 2011. From the moment we purchased this breed, I fell in love. They are the gentlest cows I have ever had the pleasure of husbanding. If you haven’t ever heard of this breed, check out our Locals page or our Facebook page. You will be able to see pictures of these beauties. Their coloring is unique.

The two matriarchs are now 12 and 11 years old respectively. Cows can go up to 15 to 20 years depending on the breed. But this is likely Claire’s last calf before she retires. She has had consistent issues with mastitis and now produces only enough milk to feed her calf. To be a viable business, we need more than that. It has been fine over the past years because we were not fully operational as a dairy, but that is coming to an end this year. At least we hope so, barring any further unforeseen medical issues or some other catastrophe. And, according to the vet, Buttercup has gotten too fat to conceive easily. She has not taken this year or last year. That means early retirement for her as well. Who knew that we had such healthy and abundant grass? But she is not even giving us a yearly calf. It’s just money down the drain because the girl can chow down on some grass and hay. We love our original girls and it will be hard letting them go.

Violet and Cloud came to the homestead next. Cloud is a year older than Violet but she is also slated for replacement. Cloud is ¾ Normande and has never been an ideal cow for milking. I don’t recall why we purchased her. Perhaps because she was bred at the time and Claire, back at home, was not. Anyway, she is a lovely cow but does not fit our dairy operation.

While Violet has been a bit of a problem, we will get her back on track next year. Last time she was bred, she didn’t deliver until June. That’s the exact time that we are breeding again for calves to be born the next spring in March and April. Cows have a nine-month gestation period just like humans. Because she delivered so late in the year, she is out of the rotation for breeding this time around. We expect her to be fine for next year. She’s a great mom, a moderate milk producer, and she produces beautiful calves. That’s it for the older girls.

I’m going to throw in here a short saga of how we came to purchase Jerseys which I will get to in a minute. They are next on the list of cows added to the homestead.

Some years back, we ran into a drought situation. I’m thinking it was around 2014 or 2015. We had lots of cows, calves and about 70 sheep. No rain for an extended period of time and all of sudden the pastures were gone. Pastures are the lifeblood of our operation. We aren’t animal farmers so much as grass farmers. We acted quickly. We sold all of our steers and heifers as well as most of the sheep. We dropped the sheep count to six, one ram and five ewes. I don’t recall how the number of cows that we kept. I’m thinking about 5 or 6. Claire, Buttercup, Cloud, Violet, Lilly (who is gone now) and Dora (who died a few years ago following a premature delivery and infection). So that is six. The pastures began to recover now that there weren’t so many animals eating it down.

The next year after the drought, we sold all the calves again and the pastures recovered. Following that recovery, we seemed to have had nothing but bull calves. So here we are in need of cows that we can milk. We also culled one cow, Lilly, that we probably should have kept. Two years in a row she didn’t conceive so we culled her. Later we found out that we probably could have treated her and she would have been fine. These are learning experiences that we will share with you as we talk more about raising your own food. And then Dora died nearly three years ago. She had some kind of infection and delivered about two weeks early. The vet saved her calf and treated her as best she could, but did not give us a favorable prognosis. Dora died three days later. At that point we were reduced to only four milk cows. So, bring on the Jerseys.

Jerseys About 3 or 4 years ago, we purchased a registered A2A2 Jersey heifer. A fellow vendor at the farmer’s market was getting out of the herd share business (that’s the legal way to provide raw milk to families in Virginia) and asked if we were interested in picking up the slack. We purchased Butter from her to supply the extra need for milk. That’s how our herd share operation got started.

The next learning experience was artificial insemination. We had also sold our herd bull somewhere along the way. Our first AI experience produced a shortage of cows having calves and freshening with milk. In short, even with Butter producing her wonderful abundance of Jersey milk, we did not have enough milk for our herd shares and cheesemaking.

In comes Rosie. Rosie was also a registered Jersey A2A2 heifer. I was skeptical, but Scott said he had a good feeling and we made the leap of faith. Rosie was bred when she was just nine months old. That’s equivalent to a young teen pregnancy. She was scheduled to give birth at 18 months. That is a whopping six months too young in conventional wisdom. But again, Scott had a good feeling about it and she produced a beautiful heifer calf. So now we have three registered Jersey cows/calves. It was beginning to look like the herd was shifting to another breed. But Au contrare. I’m not putting up with that. We want the center or our operation to be Normande cows.

Wisconsin Being aware of our continued shortage of heifers, we have been on the lookout for replacement stock for a couple of years. Normande cows and heifers are not easy to find in this area of the country. This fall, we finally bit the bullet and Scott drove all the way to Wisconsin to pick up three new heifers. (By the way, for newbies, a heifer is a female bovine animal that has not yet had a calf. She doesn’t graduate to officially being a cow until she has successfully delivered her first calf.) Anyway, Scott and “almost son-in-law” left for Wisconsin around 11:00 pm on a Saturday night. They drove through the night and arrived Sunday evening nearby to the target farm with just time enough to have a nice dinner and get a good night’s sleep at a local hotel. The next morning, they arrived at the Wisconsin farm and were loaded up in ½ an hour. It’s now Monday morning about 8:00. The return trip took almost 24 hours. Yes, it was Tuesday morning around 7:30 before they got home and unloaded our new girls.

Our New Girls It’s time to meet Wanda, Ginger and Molly. For our cheese operation we need specific genetics to make the best cheese possible. These girls have it. Genetically they are all A2A2 with the BB kappa casein protein. Wanda and Ginger are percentage Normande. At 75% Normande and 25% Guernsey/Milking Short Horn, their calves will be considered pure bred Normande when adding in a pure-bred French bull. We like the 25% being milking genetics. Another issue with getting Normande cattle is so many of the large breeders are breeding for meat. We will still get decent meat production from our steers, even with milking genetics. But we need good udders and sufficient milk production to be a profitable dairy and cheesemaking operation. So, these girls fit the bill perfectly for everything we were looking for in breeding stock.

Wanda and Ginger are mostly Normande. Molly is quite beautiful, but she is 75% Jersey. Again, good milking genetics. She will be bred later this year along with everyone else and we will use full blood Normande semen. Her calves will be 62 or 63% Normande. Those calves will be registered and then bred again to a different full blood Normande bull and that offspring will be 82% Normande and considered pure bred. And the percentage continues to go up from there. Sometimes the only way to get what you are looking for is to breed it yourself. Another trip to Wisconsin is just not what we want. Molly had the genetics and could be quickly useful in adding Normande genetics to our herd. And did I mention how beautiful she is?

Breeding for Genetics The bull semen we purchased also has the proper genetics. A2A2 and BB kappa casein protein. All of the offspring from these new heifers will have the proper genetics. I guess I left out the piece that none of the current cows had the complete set of proper genetics. Butter, Claire and Buttercup have the A2A2 genetics. Violet is A1A2 but has the BB kappa casein trait. We have one other heifer who will have her first calf this year. Luna is out of Cloud. Cloud is also A1A2 and she does not have the bb kappa casein trait. Again, she is a wonderful cow that we used as a nurse cow, but we really need the proper genetics and we only have so much land to raise these animals. Those that don’t fit the bill need to go somewhere else.

Luna’s test has been sent off but we do not have the results yet. She has very strong Angus genetics and I am not hopeful that she has what we need. It shows in her coloring. Likely she will not actually produce milk in the quantities we are looking for in a cow. On the upside, she will make someone a great family cow and we will sell her as such next year or later this year. Likely her production will produce just enough milk for a family looking to provide milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter for themselves and their children. She will also produce beautiful calves that can be raised for beef. It’s a win-win for a family.

So, to wrap that up. We are culling our three oldest cows for one reason or another and replacing them with these wonderful new heifers. Going forward we are looking to grow the herd with the proper genetics.

Quail Just a brief word on the quail. I have no idea where I left off with them. Their actual number at this time is even a mystery to me. We had one last batch hatched out in September. It was a poor hatch rate. I was trying to refresh our genetics but it was a little late in the year for hatching quail.

These newbies went into the upper left penthouse to finish growing. All of the roosters had been cleared out of the other cages. I was looking for new roosters from this last hatching. When they were big enough, I took roosters out of that penthouse and put them in with the girls in the other four cages. One got mauled and died, but the rest are doing fine as best I can tell. We also lost one or two hens that just up and died. It is not an unusual occurrence. You go out there one day and one of them is just cold and lifeless. I’m not so attached to the quail as to the cows, sheep and dogs, so I don’t lose much sleep over this.

Anyway, they are doing well. I feed them once a day but need to refresh their water usually twice a day if it is freezing outside. We usually get anywhere from 24 to 30 eggs. Although yesterday I got a grand total of six after a really cold couple of days. I have lots of quail eggs and we just started giving the dogs and occasional quail egg treat. They loved them.

Dairy Parlor and Creamery Scott was temporarily out of commission over the past six months or so due to his cancer treatment but he is back on track now. He takes all of the cow girls through the dairy barn area a couple of times a week. It’s important for them to get used to the routine there. Right now, he just lets them mill about and get used to everything there. In the future he will move them around inside the parlor and get them used to going where he wants them to go. But getting them familiar is the first step. Cows are very wary of anything new or different. Once they have been there a few times and found that nothing actually happens, it’s time to move to the next step.

As far as the building aspect of the creamery, the electrical wiring is the next step. On the drive home from Sunday Mass, we often talk about plans. Scott told me yesterday that he only needs to get the milking parlor, milk room and cheese make room up and operational to get us inspected. After that, he will gradually put together everything else. The bathroom, the large cheese cave and the kitchen. It is important that we get to a point where we can pass USDA inspection so that we can actually begin making money. This has been a long project, has cost us a lot more money that either of us ever expected and with the medical bills, it’s time to get some cash flow coming our way, God willing. I love selling meat, sauces, and jams at the smaller farmer’s markets but look forward to selling much larger quantities of cheese to local restaurants and wineries.

Garden Planning If you are one of those that is getting more and more interested in growing more of your own food, this next part is just for you. I’m going to lay out, to the best of my ability, some thoughts and actions that you can take to start growing more of your own food. We’ll start with gardening and later add growing various meat products and processing them.

Raised Beds or No Raised Beds From large plots of land that contain acres down to a few containers on your balcony, everyone can do something to grow their own food. With the current supply chain disruption, this becomes more and more important for simply feeding your family.

Let’s start with what kind of gardening you will be doing. I’ll stick to what I know and offer a few additional notes as I go for ideas on how you might modify my ideas to fit your particular situation.

I prefer the raised beds. They are not required. You can even begin in containers on your balcony if you live in an apartment. There is always a little bit that can be done. Of course, sowing your seeds directly into the ground is an age-old method of gardening. In any case, what becomes most important is the soil. Let me go over what to expect in that regard.

I’m assuming that you have not done any vegetable gardening up to this point. Or perhaps you did a little and gave up because it just wasn’t working out. You decided you had a brown thumb. Well perhaps you just need a little more information to be successful. And keep in mind that it is a process. The soil will need to be worked and maintained throughout every single year of gardening. As each year passes, the soil improves.

Container Gardening Soil First let me address container gardening. This may be the one instance where the soil is nearly perfect from the start. Don’t use garden soil. Use a potting mix. You can’t till or work the soil very well in a container. Therefore, you need soil that will be loose and retain water. There are several organic fertilizers that you can use to amend the potting mix depending on what happens with your plants. We will get to that later. Right now, we are trying to create the environment where seeds will sprout and plant starts will take hold. For container gardening I recommend using potting soil as it comes complete with vermiculite to keep the soil from compacting and to help with holding water. Every one I have seen also comes with fertilizer included. Let me know if you have any questions about this. I’ll put a more detailed description and explanation on Locals.

Raised Bed Garden Soil Because you are using a specific sized area to garden, often it is not too expensive to fill your beds with organic soil. It depends on how many beds you want to create and how high you make the sides of your raised beds.

In our case, the raised beds are 24” from the ground. Scott stacked cinder blocks 3-high. They are 8 inches each so that is 24” from the ground. Next, he put in lots of old chunks of wood. This serves two purposes. It fills in a lot of the space that would otherwise need to have some kind of soil and it also provides a longer-term source of fertilizer. The tree chunks eventually break down and create nutrients in the soil.

Next, he added any kind of soil that he could scrape up from around the farm. We have several piles of dirt that were scraped up when some trees were being cleared. He filled each bed to within four to six inches of the top.

The last few inches, contained organic material from other places around the homestead. When the cows are eating hay in the winter, they all gather around the bale and eat to their heart’s content. Out their other end, the fertilizer is deposited on the hay that has been pushed out of the hay ring. While going to and fro to the hay ring, they tread on this mess of hay, poop and pee and mash it up into a great big pile of soon-to-be composted material. Each year, Scott moves the hay rings around to other locations. That spreads out the mess – I mean compost. At any given time, he can go out there where a hay bale was a year or two earlier and just dig up that black gold and put it on the garden. He scoops it up in the tractor bucket and brings it over to the garden.

Every year, new composted material needs to be added to the soil. After about three years or so, the soil will be getting really, really good. But don’t expect too much from the first year or two, even if you purchased the most expensive compost you could find. It takes time for the soil to settle down and begin to create all the little bugs, bacteria and such that are necessary for really fertile soil. The longer you work a particular piece of earth, the better is gets. That is, if you are continually amending the soil.

Till the Earth If you’ve got the time, the energy, and the space, you can till up the soil and plant directly into the ground. This method takes the longest to start to produce a crop that will fully meet your expectations. Start with a few inches of compost on top – and it will take a lot of compost for even a ¼ acre. Every year, add another layer of compost on top. That, combined with regular fertilization during the growing season is the way to creating the perfect soil.

That’s about all I have time for in this podcast. These were just the briefest descriptions of what it takes to get started in gardening. Look for more information on our Locals.com community.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. It’s so good to be back with you. Again, I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas and are experiencing a joyous New year. We had friends and family over and had a wonderful time. I hope you did as well.

We continue to move forward with our homestead plans. The updates on the cows are just the beginning. There is so much more with the sheep and our beautiful livestock guardian dogs. Look for more on that in the next podcast.

I hope you enjoyed the garden planning topic and if you have questions, check out our Locals.com community for more information.

The Locals platform is where we can come together as a community. I will be posting these podcasts there as well as other content that might have previously gone to Facebook or Instagram. You will need to be a subscriber to be able to comment and post. Subscriptions can be as little as $5 per month. For premium subscribers it is $25 per month. That gives you access to me via direct message on the Locals platform. I truly appreciate any and all support that you give to this podcast and to the traditional life.

If you like this content and want to help out the show, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast.

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Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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It has been a while so how about a homestead update and health update. I republished a couple of podcasts. I hope you got a chance to listen for the first time or relisten if you were interested in the topic of cheese.

It’s going to be close, but I think I can get this podcast published today. Let’s hope all goes well and I am able to accomplish it. If it doesn’t, I am likely to abandon the effort for another week. My life is topsy-turvy and I only have so much time each day to take care of any given task. When things don’t go well, they get pushed to the next day. It’s my method of reducing stress. Let’s pause a moment.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you for hanging in there with me. I appreciate you all so much. Let’s have a homestead update and then a little info on the status of our health here at Peaceful Heart Farm

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates The cows are coming up first.

Cows Last night at about 9:15 we got a call from the neighbors across the street. Two of our cows were in their yard. Who could they be? There were two groups of cows with two animals. I knew it was most likely the two that were scheduled for freezer camp this morning. Sure enough, those two guys were out there wreaking havoc in the neighbor’s yard and trying to get into the pasture with their cows.

It was a little harrowing to be trying to work with two very large boys in the dark. However, all of our cows are fairly docile. They were upset and confused of course. I believe that I’ve mentioned before that a cow does not like anything out of the ordinary. They want things to be the same all the time. Routine, routine, routine. So needless to say, everything about this situation was out of the ordinary.

Perrin is Secured Nearby, just 20 or 30 feet down the driveway, was a gate to a paddock. Scott opened that gate and Perrin almost immediately went inside. Rocketman was a different story. He went back and forth in front of that gate at least three or four times, never venturing inside. Finally, he started down the driveway and Scott herded him that way and away from the neighbor’s cows. I followed with the car. Of course, once we got him down the driveway the next challenge was finding a way to get him into a pasture.

Scott chased him up and down one fence a couple of times. I opened up a couple of gates. One was a gate back to where he escaped. The other was into the field with our nursery girls. It was a little risky letting him in there, but we needed some way to get him into some fence somewhere. Once he was back inside our perimeter fence, there were many options as to how to move forward.

Rocketman is Secured Rocketman eagerly went through the very wide-open gate into the pasture with the girls. The girls themselves were way out in the field. We needed to get him contained before he joined with them. That would be a disaster if we had to single him out from that crowd in the dark. Scott quickly contained the girls in paddock number one. Perrin was in paddock number two. And Rocketman was in the travel lane that joins with all paddocks.

The goal was to isolate both boys in the small holding area just inside the gate I opened for Rocketman. He had already walked most of the way down the travel lane toward the other paddocks. Scott met him coming the other way while herding Perrin down the travel lane toward the holding area. I was over in paddock number four which runs directly alongside the travel lane. I wanted to be close but not in the travel lane. That would have just confused everything and possibly herded them back out into the field in an attempt to get away from me.

Chasing Cows Around Paddock Four Now for the next debacle. There are two gates at the bottom of a hollow. One opens into paddock four where I am and one opens or closes the travel lane where Scott and the boys are walking. I’m a little way up the hill in paddock four, just monitoring how they are moving. Everything looks Ok. Scott is coming down the travel lane headed toward the holding area. I just happened to mention that the gate into paddock four is open and they might come in there instead of continuing up the hill into the holding area. And you know what? That is exactly what they did. Now we are reduced to chasing them around paddock four, still trying to get them to go back through the gate and up to the small holding area.

All Ends Well At some point I went down and closed the gate to the travel lane. No sense in letting them run back up that way. Now all we needed to do is get them to go through the other open gate out of paddock four and into the holding area. Somewhere along the way in this process, I noticed that part of the problem we were having is that they would go wherever the light was shining. Our headlamps and flashlights were actually confusing them. As Scott brought them back down the hill for the third or fourth time, I had just finished latching that travel lane gate. I shined my flashlight in the exact place I wanted them to go. It worked. Right through the gate they went. The travel lane gate was closed and now the gate into paddock four could be closed.

Whew what a trip. It lasted about 45 minutes. Shortly after 10 o’clock we were back inside and grateful for it.

The Girls The girls continued to happily exist up in paddock number one until the next morning. After loading the boys into the trailer, he opened the paddock gate allowing the girls access to the pond for water and cooling baths.

Last week we had our vet and AI tech out checking to see who is and is not pregnant. There was good news and bad news. Three are pregnant and three are not. We are going to roll with that for the spring.

Buttercup The vet gave us health information on the entire herd. Buttercup did not conceive. This is two years in a row. The vet talked to us about her weight. Too much fat is not a good thing, especially in an aging cow. I won’t go into the details, but her opinion was that, not only had she not conceived, but it was going to be harder and harder for her to conceive as she ages more. She will need to be replaced.

Cloud Cloud was pregnant but miscarried. The vet was not too concerned about this. A late term spontaneous abortion would be a different story. But aborting early in the process is not so uncommon. We decided against trying to start over with any of our girls. Cloud is also marked to be replaced. Not because of her miscarriage, but because she kicks so much that we cannot milk her. Due to her strong angus genetics, she is also not really ideal as a milk cow. She simply does not produce as much milk as the others. Not by a long shot.

Claire Claire appears to be pregnant but the vet could not 100% confirm it. She did mark her as pregnant but noted that she could not move the uterus to a position where she could know for sure. However, the fact that she could not move it was a good indication that Claire is pregnant. We shall see. Claire is also marked for replacement as she is getting on in years and is prone to mastitis. Her udder is in bad shape. She produces enough milk for her calf and not much more.

Luna Now on to one we will keep for a little while, though we may offer her up to anyone looking for a family cow. Luna is pregnant. She is a heifer which means this will be her first calf. We do not expect her to produce lots and lots and lots of milk. Her mom is Cloud and Luna exhibits a lot of the angus coloring traits. We don’t really know how much milk she will produce, but it is likely that it will be substandard for what we are looking for in a milk cow. However, it may be perfect for someone looking for a little milk for their family and a good beef calf every year. We shall see. At this point, her fate is still up in the air.

Violet Just a brief note on Violet. She did not make it into the rotation for artificial insemination. And we did not expose her to the bull. She is not pregnant and will remain open for the coming spring birthing season. In June next year, she will make it back into the breeding rotation. Violet has really good Normande breeding genetics. She has the BB kappa casein genetic trait that we want for cheesemaking. I asked about her weight and the vet said that even though her belly is really big and round, she is not overweight near her ovaries and therefore does not have Buttercup’s issue with weight. She’s a keeper for now.

The Jerseys, Butter and Rosie Now on to the Jersey girls. Butter is a champ. She is pregnant and looking good. No issues there. Rosie, on the other hand, is not pregnant. The vet had already warned me that this was the most likely issue with a heifer having a calf when she was so very young. Getting pregnant again might take a little time.

Scott and I were just discussing this morning that we might want to have one cow that gives birth in the fall so we have some milk year-round. Right now, we dry them up in November and have no fresh milk products until March or April the following year. Rosie might be an ideal candidate for a fall delivery. We shall see. There are still a couple of months ahead of us before we would need to make that decision.

Special Cheeses Any cow that gave birth in the fall would be completely out of the rotation for making cheese. Do we really want to give up that milk? It’s still under consideration. It would be nice to have a very small amount of milk to make cream cheese and yogurt throughout the winter. And perhaps a bit of camembert, reblochon or other cheese that we might make in smaller quantities for personal use.

Calf Sharing If we decide to do that, we would do what is known as calf sharing. That means the calf stays with mom. Anytime we want to have milk, we simply separate them overnight and milk in the morning. For any of you thinking about having your own milk cow, this offers tremendous freedom. Normally, cows get milked twice a day. But if you are calf sharing, the calf takes care of the milk during the day. Overnight mom makes lots of milk and we get to keep that part. The calf rejoins mom and gets all of the luscious milk throughout the day. As I mentioned earlier, even Luna would produce enough milk to make this work. And if the day comes when you don’t want to milk at all on any given day, just leave calf and mom together for the entire day and night. It’s a win-win situation. The calf really appreciates the extra juice and the homesteader gets a break from milking every single day, seven days a week.

Well, that was a lot of cow updates. On to the sheep. I won’t be as long-winded here I promise.

Sheep and Mack Mack is doing a good job of protecting the few sheep that we have left in the flock. We had one ewe that had an abscess on her chest. The vet drained it and gave us instructions on how to care for it. She is nearly healed already. Lambert, the ram had deeper issues. We don’t really know the cause but he had some pretty severe hoof issues. The vet seemed to think it was perhaps related to running around trying to get away from predators that precipitated this issue. His feet were really sore. She tried trimming his hooves but there wasn’t really much there. We treated all of the sheep for hoof scald and hoof rot. This is a problem that we are aware of but have never encountered. It usually happens when their hooves are not in top shape and they are exposed to a lot of water. And it appears, that lots of stress on the hooves can caused problems.

Worms Again? In addition to the hoof problem, Lambert also had an enormous worm load. He had lost lots and lots of weight. He is still actually quite weak. The worms suck the blood out via the stomach. The animal becomes very anemic. It does take some time to heal. Hopefully, Lambert will turn the corner soon and regain his weight and strength. He was pretty far gone and his health is still up in the air.

The remaining two seems to be in relatively good shape. We wormed all of them just to be sure. Lambert’s worm overload was also likely precipitated by the enormous amount of stress they all endured during the predator attacks. Stress can weaken their systems enough to give the worms the window of opportunity they need to begin to multiplying uncontrollably.

It has been a good long time since we had any issues with worms and we may have been a little lax. Going forward we will be keeping a closer eye on these guys. Hopefully, they will all stay relaxed and continue to live peacefully on the homestead.

We are also still looking to add a few more ewes to the flock soon. Rebuilding will take some time and we want to get started on that process. Two more dogs are lined up to help us out as we rebuild from the disastrous spring and summer. More on that later.

Personal Health Update Before closing today I’ll give a brief health update for both Scott and myself. Scott is doing very well with treatment. He is two and a half weeks into seven weeks of radiation treatment. No chemo, thank the Lord. He drives an hour each way to receive the treatment, Monday through Friday. I will be accompanying him in the coming days.

He is managing the treatment very well. A sore throat makes it more and more difficult to eat. There are lots of treatments to help with that as well. Taking daily naps is a way of life for him. Sometimes for a couple of hours, but yesterday for only a half hour. We are still fairly early on in the treatment so we will see how he progresses.

Treatment Side Effects At this point in the treatment, the worst side effects start to manifest. I already mentioned the difficulty in getting food down due to the pain in his throat. Add to this that his taste will change. Doctors have let him know that everything will begin to taste horrible. Their experience has shown that the taste issue will continue for a month or two or even more past the time when the treatments are complete. As you can imagine, this adds insult to injury. He already has trouble swallowing. How much worse will it be when he has to force himself to even put anything into his mouth?

Scott is a trooper. He is a stoic individual. I fully expect he will plow through this just like he does any other issue that presents itself to his world. I am here to support him in any way that I can.

My Health My state of health is stable. That is the best way I can describe it. The time prior to the treatment starting was more stressful. I can say that at this point. Who knows what the future will hold? I could be off-the-scale stressed next week. The uncertainty of what the future would hold, one appointment after another in preparation for treatment and my own insecurity about whether I was mentally and emotionally up to the task of caring for Scott was wreaking havoc on my normal schedule and making me a little cray-cray. Now that we are settled into a routine, I am handling it much better. I feel much more relaxed and confident in my ability to respond to Scott’s needs as they arise.

We are blessed to have all of you praying for us. Thank you so much. Please continue to pray for us and we will pray for you.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I know the cow updates were long and perhaps too detailed. I didn’t even get to the quail. Well, too late now. I need to get this podcast published and then on to the evening chores. It’s time to wake Scott up from his nap so he can start on his evening routine. The regularity of routine is a life saver when your life is topsy-turvy.

Again, thank you so much for your prayers.

And I will add the shameless plugs because we need your support. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go to Apple Podcasts or Google Play whatever podcasting service you use, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. If you like this content and want to help out the show, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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How Cheese Makes You Happy!

Today’s Show * Homestead Life Updates * Cheese and Nutrition + Nutritional content + Cheese tastes good + Facts about fat content + Lactose intolerance + Why cheese makes people happy * Cheese Fondue Recipe

Homestead Life Updates Scott is working hard on getting the creamery built. Every day that does not bring adverse weather sees him out there building the walls. There are also lots of other odds and ends and details he adds in there that breaks up the monotony. I’m am so blessed to have such a wonderful life here with him. Our life has purpose and meaning as we both work hard to bring you the benefits of traditional hand-made artisan cheese.

The winter drags on. Seems like a long one this year doesn’t it? Every year winter is the same 13 weeks on the calendar but the weather conditions during that period of time alters our perception of time, I think.

There is a common winter ailment called seasonal affective disorder. I’m sure some of you know of what I speak. It’s a type of depression that’s related to changes in the seasons. Symptoms can begin as early as the fall and continue into the winter months. Occasionally, SAD causes depression into the spring or early summer, but that is rarer. Spring usually brings a rush of relief.

I experience SAD every year. This year is different. I’ve significantly changed my diet and it shows. While I can still feel the effects of this winter season, it is muted compared to previous years. I feel kind of heavy sometimes; slightly weighted down by life in general.

As an aside, I generally just suffer through it. However, there are things you can do. Light therapy or phototherapy is the most common treatment. Some schools of thought attribute the issue to reduced vitamin D from the sun as there is less light due to the length of the day. More severe cases may require medication or psychotherapy.

The symptoms may start as a minor issue such as having trouble sleeping or a general loss of interest in doing anything. Low energy, feeling sluggish or maybe agitated for no reason. As the season progresses, the symptoms get worse and worse. In the past it has seemed overwhelming to me. And then, poof, spring arrives and it all evaporates like mist.

Let’s talk about how cheese might help with that. Did you know that cheese has nutritional properties that stimulate our happy hormones? First, let’s cover the basic nutrition in cheese.

Cheese and Nutrition Cheese is a delicious and tremendously efficient source of nutrition. It supplies many valuable nutrients, including proteins, sugars, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. A 4-ounce piece of solid farmhouse cheese, for example, supplies more than half the adult nutritional requirements for protein, fat, calcium, and phosphorus as well as significant portions of vitamins A, B2, and B12. If you compare the nutritional content of a 3.5-ounce chunk of a hard, aged cheese such as Cheddar or Emmental to an equivalent amount of chicken eggs (two eggs are about 3.5 ounces), the cheese contains about twice as much protein and one quarter the cholesterol.

The miracle of evolution has ensured that milk is an extremely nutritious food. After all, without it how would mothers, down through the eons, have guaranteed the survival of their babies? Cheese concentrates the nutrients in milk. It’s a highly efficient method of getting vital nutrients for our bodies.

Another advantage to cheese is that its nutrients are “predigested” by bacteria and enzymes during cheesemaking and aging. That means the process of breaking down the proteins, fats, and sugars began before it was savored on our palette and began the journey to our tummy.

Plants in the pasture have absorbed nutrients from the soil; the dairy animals have extracted those nutrients, packaging them in the form of milk. That’s another place that a lot of gathering nutrients has already been done for you. Your body has to devote less effort to processing cheese than it does with many other comparably nutritious foods.

Cheese Tastes Good Cheese tastes good and satisfies us. A big reason for that is the fat. There are beneficial fats available in milk. Many of them work as antioxidants and also provide fat-soluble vitamins good for our skin and other organs. In cheese, milk fats undergo lipolysis, which breaks them down into more easily absorbed and beneficial fatty acids, some of which in turn enable us to metabolize the fats from other foods.

CLA Cheeses, especially those made from the milk of grass-fed animals, are a good source of conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, a highly beneficial nutrient. In small studies involving animals, CLA has been shown to prevent heart disease and several types of cancer. It also appears to enhance the immune system. CLA is considered a fat-reducing fat. You heard that right. There are studies on this. Let me give you some info from one study. I’ll put a link in the show notes.

Jean-Michel Gaullier, PhD with the Scandinavian Clinical Research Group did the study. It was a relatively small number of participants. 180 men and women were followed for a year. A third got a typical off-the-shelf pill of 80% CLA. Another third got a 76% CLA syrup formula, disguised in a capsule. The last third took a placebo capsule of olive oil.

No one had to change their diet or exercise habits. All reduced their calorie intake a little bit during the study. Likely that was due to tracking with a food diary. That can really wake you up to what you are actually consuming. As far as exercise, all got about the same amount.

The results were:

Both CLA groups lost weight – about 4 pounds; the placebo group stayed the same.
The CLA syrup group had a 9% body fat loss; the CLA pill group had 7% body fat loss; the placebo group had no body fat loss.
Both CLA groups had similar improvements in muscle mass.

Good news ay? Losing weight was good, but I found the conversion of fat to muscle mass to be the most interesting to me.

CLA is found naturally in beef, lamb, goat and dairy products.

Facts About Fat Content Because cheese contains fat, naturally, it raises concerns. There are some valid concerns there. Not for the fat, but for the calories. A little bit of cheese goes a long way. Real cheese delivers a lot of nutritional bang for your buck and a lot of caloric bang for your buck. The fat is the culprit there. The key is to eat moderate amounts along with your other dietary choices. Let’s talk about the fat content of various cheeses.

Contrary to appearances, hard, grainy cheeses such as Parmesan may actually contain more fat than creamy, luxurious ones such as any triple cream cheese. The rich triple cream types are labeled “75% butterfat” while a Parmigiana–Reggiano claims around 35% butterfat. The trick is that cheeses are labeled by percentage of fat in their solid materials, not in their total weight.

Cheeses retain water, even after much of it is extracted during cheesemaking. The less water a cheese retains, the harder or denser it will be. A dense cheese with, say, 50% butterfat, could actually deliver more fat per serving than a soft, gooey one with 70% butterfat.

Lactose Intolerance Let’s talk about lactose intolerance. Well–made, aged cheeses are actually one of the few dairy products that will not cause problems for many people with this difficulty. The first and most important step of cheesemaking, alongside protein coagulation, is the conversion of lactose into lactic acid – the souring or fermentation action of lactic acid bacteria on milk. The small amount of lactose left over after active cheesemaking ends is further broken down by glycolysis during aging.

What this means is that for people who have trouble digesting lactose, it’s not a problem because the digestion has already been done for them by the cheesemaking and aging process. Give it a try. You, too, can be a happy cheese eater. Speaking of cheese making your happy. Why is that?

Why cheese makes people happy A wonderful piece of info I ran across wherein a neurologist talks about how cheese literally makes you happy. Dr. Thomas C Morell is the neurologist. Link to the article will be in the show notes. The title of the piece is Nutritional Neuroscience. The central core of the article is using nutrition to help heal TBI or traumatic brain injury.

There is some really good information about how the brain functions along with how and why nutrition is important to maximize brain function. Later in the article he gets specifically to cheese as “the first food that will help your brain.” He cites cheese as an extraordinarily rich source of proteins and amino acids. One of those amino acids is Tyrosine. Dr. Morell’s comments on the relation of tyrosine to neurotransmitters in the brain are noted in the article.

Some quotes from the article: (again, reference in the show notes) “The body does not produce Tyrosine so it must be obtained from outside sources, of which cheese contains very high concentrations. We quickly began to realize that cheese is one of nature's perfect foods for the body and for brain functioning! Furthermore, the pleasure of eating cheese in its multitude of varieties is not just for the sensuous pleasure of taste and smell, but actually has nutritional importance that will help the neurotransmitters in your brain. Cheese not only supplies calories for metabolism as well as being an excellent source of Calcium, but contains proteins and amino acids that are intricately associated with manufacturing many important brain chemicals.”

Then he talks about how cheese makes people happy.

“Cheese can make people happy. Why? It starts with Tyrosine which is a building block for many of the neurotransmitter chemicals in the brain. It can improve mood and well-being particularly during times of stress. Tyrosine is a substrate of many well-known neurotransmitters including adrenaline, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Cheese may be one of the basic primordial foods that improved the performance of our brain, with deep connections from the olfactory bulb to the parts of our brain responsible for memory and emotions. Cheese may just be the perfect food to capture the nutritional-emotional duality that our bodies and brains need!”

I find it so refreshing that our medical profession is starting to look at food as nutrition for building, maintaining, and healing the body.

“Cheese contains high levels of casein which is the primary protein found in milk. As casein is broken down and digested it is converted into Tyrosine. Casein is also broken down into the chemical casomorphin, an opioid molecule in the same family as morphine. This may explain some of cheese's addicting qualities!”

I can relate to the addicting quality of cheese. As my diet has improved, my urge for eating too much food is strongly diminished. However, once I start eating cheese, I may overeat if I don’t pay attention.

“There are many receptors for the Tyrosine molecule in the olfactory bulb where our sense of smell courses through the Central Nervous System. The Tyrosine in cheese is broken down into several chemicals. One of them is epinephrine (adrenaline) which has many positive physical and mental effects to make us more alert. Epinephrine also increases the flow of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles which elicits the "Fight or Flight" response to stressful or dangerous situations. Norepinephrine helps fight off depression and can improve our attention and concentration skills. Dopamine is a powerful neurotransmitter involved in mood stability and accounts for pleasurable feelings and activation of the brain's reward systems. Tyrosine is also a precursor to levodopa which is used to replace deficiency of Dopamine in Parkinson's disease. Finally, Tyrosine is also a precursor to Melatonin, the skin pigment that protects us from ultraviolet sunlight damage but is also associated with insulin production which regulates blood sugar levels.”

How perfect is cheese? It makes you feel good with the neurotransmitter action and supplies energy and protein. All are critical for brain performance and memory retention.

As a final note on the topic, have you ever wondered what those little crunchy pockets that develop in the paste of well-made aged cheeses are? Those are crystals of tyrosine embedded in the long chains of amino acids of the casein molecules. When they make your mouth water, they are not only providing cheese eating pleasure but they’re also setting into motion a series of very real and tangible benefits to your body and brain.

Let’s move on to today’s cheese fondue recipe.

Cheese Fondue Recipe Cheese fondue can be fancy or it can be a quaint and close tradition in any family or group of friends. As an added bonus, it’s easy to make. The only skill needed is the ability to stand at a stove and stir.

Cheese fondue is a Swiss invention which became popular in the US in the 1960’s. I’m looking to revive that tradition. As its core fondue is melted cheese served in a pot over a portable heating device and enjoyed communally. It can be made with or without the official fondue set. A double boiler set up will work just fine. Using a crock pot is also an option. The key is low, slow heat. Add some wooden skewers and your homemade fondue set is complete.

How to Make the Perfect Cheese Fondue at Home The perfect cheese fondue is rich and smooth. First, I want to go over a few tips to make it easy for that to happen for you. Stick to them and your family and guests will be transported to the Alps from their first bite.

Use Good-Quality Cheese. It will be more expensive but worth it. Even if you ignore all of the other tips, keep this one. Fondue truly is all about the cheese, and the quality and types of cheeses you use will have an enormous impact on the final product.
- For classic Swiss cheese fondue (meaning one like what you would find in Switzerland), a mix of traditional, firm alpine mountain-style cheeses is best. Gruyere and Emmental come to mind.
- We make a cheese called Pinnacle that will serve you well. There are lots of other cheeses that will also work. No need to be bound by the “Swiss” label.
- You want a buttery, creamy cheese that melts smoothly. Cheddar cheese would work. Even though the flavor would be less traditional, it would still taste fantastic. I’ve used our Clau d’ ville Cheddar mixed with alpine-style Pinnacle and the blend warms the heart.
Grate – do not chop – the Cheese. Grated cheese will melt much quicker.
Toss the Cheese with Cornstarch Thoroughly. Cornstarch helps thicken the fondue and prevents the cheese from clumping. You don’t want lumpy cheese!
Classic cheese fondue does call for white wine. Use a good wine. Choose something dry and high acid, such as Sauvignon Blanc.
- The taste of the wine directly impacts the taste of the fondue. The acid in the wine helps keep the cheese smooth and gives it an even texture. Again, we don’t want lumpy fondue.
- You can substitute unsalted chicken or vegetable stock if you do not want to use wine.
- For beer cheese fondue, swap out the wine with your favorite beer. Beer works really well in a cheddar cheese fondue.
Add the Cheese Slowly and Stir Constantly. This is SO important to make sure the cheese fondue is buttery smooth.
- Grab a small handful and sprinkle it into the pot. Stir constantly and wait for each addition to melt before adding the next.
- Don’t try to rush it—you won’t win. Just enjoy the moment at the stove at peace with yourself, the cheese, and the promise of a luscious fondue.

What Should You Dip? * Bread. Always delicious. French or sourdough cut into 1-inch cubes so that it can be easily skewered. * Apples. Tart apples like Granny Smith are fantastic dipped with cheese fondue. Cut the apples into cubes. * Cherry Tomatoes. One of my absolute favorites! * Roasted Baby Potatoes. * Steamed Broccoli. Reminds me of broccoli cheese soup. * Mushrooms * Game Day Delights: * + Potato or tortilla chips + Soft or hard pretzels + Ham, Turkey or Beef + Bacon. Even better than you think it’s going to taste. Make sure the bacon isn’t too crisp or it will break off in the pot. + Shrimp or mussels + Kielbasa or hot dogs + Pepperoni + Meatballs + Pickles.

The choices are up to you. There are no rules there. Anything that tastes good with cheese it going to be heaven. It takes about 25 minutes to make the fondue.

What You Need * 1 pound (4 cups) of 2 or more cheeses of your choice – Gruyere, Emmental, Appenzeller and of course our Pinnacle * 2 tablespoons cornstarch * 1 cup dry white wine — such as Sauvignon Blanc * 1 clove garlic — minced * 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice * 1 tablespoon kirsch – Kirsch is a clear colorless fruit brandy. You may substitute a brandy of your choice * 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg – ground * 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional) * Assorted Fondue dippers

What to do 1. Grate all of the cheeses. In a medium bowl, combine the cheeses with the cornstarch, tossing thoroughly to coat all pieces. 2. In a stove-safe fondue pot or large heavy saucepan, bring the wine, garlic, and lemon juice to a simmer over medium-low heat. Add the cheeses to the simmering liquid a little at a time, stirring well between each addition to ensure a smooth fondue. Once smooth, stir in the brandy, nutmeg, and mustard. 3. Arrange an assortment of bite-size dipping foods on a platter. Carefully pour the fondue into a fondue pot. Serve with fondue forks or wooden skewers. 4. Dip and enjoy!

Recipe Notes: If using a crock pot, no need to wait for the wine and lemon to simmer. Put it all in there and stir as needed until the desired consistency is achieved.

Final Thoughts I’ve run out of words for today. I hope if you have the winter blues you are taking time out of the day to pamper yourself. And remember, this too shall pass. Enjoy some cheese to get that tyrosine going and get happy.

I hope you’ll try the fondue. You can let me know what creative ideas you used and traditions you started by commenting on the Facebook post @peacefulheartfarm.

As always, I’m here to help you “taste the traditional touch.”

Thank you so much for listening and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

Recipe Link Cheese Fondue

References * CLA: The New Miracle Weight Loss Pill? * Nutritional Neuroscience – Dr. Thomas C. Morell

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A cancer diagnosis is causing temporary changes to the podcast. We have had a cancer diagnosis and that will affect what I am able to do on a daily basis. I will be caring for Scott and picking up a lot of tasks he normally handles. In the end, it looks like he will be fine. However, getting to that end point will entail traveling a very difficult road of chemo and radiation.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I’m going to start with a few more details about our health situation and then give you a few livestock and garden updates.

A Cancer Diagnosis Over the past four weeks we have been to one appointment after another. Specialists, CAT scan, biopsy, surgery and a couple more specialist appointments all in little more than 30 days. Scott has had both tonsils out and the healing for that procedure is quite lengthy for an adult. I’ve been milking the cows on my own and with a little help with the heavy lifting from a neighbor. It has been going pretty well.

Getting things in Order Scott and I are streamlining as much as possible so we can get through this time period with less stress. We have plenty of cheese stored up, so I will not be making any more cheese for the rest of this milking season. Milking twice a day changed to once a day almost immediately. That reduces the amount of milk that we are handling on a daily and weekly basis. Between the great herd share folks, feeding the calf, making yogurt and having drinking milk for ourselves, I think we will be in good shape here. Oh yeah, and making butter every so often as well.

Cheese Cave Changes We are changing how we store the cheese in the cheese cave. Scott handles all of that, and rather than me trying to add that to my already full schedule, we are going to try vacuum packing a lot of the cheeses. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Garden Changes The garden is in full swing and there is not much I can do about that except get out there every day or so and bring in the harvest, process it quickly and move on to the next task. I’ve determined that if I get behind on that, the compost pile will be loving it.

Podcast Changes The biggest change will be with this podcast. It takes a tremendous amount of time to put out each episode. My plan is to replay some of the older episodes. If you are new this will be a benefit for you. And if you are a long-time listener, I hope you will bear with me as we get through this time. The doctor let me know to expect drastic changes in lifestyle for four to six months. We can do this.

Now for a few homestead updates.

Creamery Of course, the creamery is completely on hold. This will be my last mention of that for several months.

Cows The cows are hanging in there. I’m a little worried about getting hay to them in the winter. I’ll be looking for help from a neighbor or two in that regard. Moving them from one pasture paddock to another is something I can easily handle. But when the grass runs out, they will need hay brought to them. That means someone who knows what they are doing with a tractor. That’s not me. Fortunately, that task can be done once or twice a week in an hour or so and should not be too much of a burden for those helping us through this time.

Sheep The sheep are hanging out with Mack, the sheepdog. They seem to be getting along quite well. We may add a few sheep back to the flock over the next few weeks. Again, moving them from place to place is not hard. So, having six or eight instead of four is not a big deal. We shall see how that plays out. If it seems stressful to try and accomplish it, I will let that do as well. There is always next year.

Donkeys Because we now have a livestock guardian dog, the donkeys are going on to another home. This is a high priority in the next few weeks. The donkeys require regular hoof care that I simply will not be able to provide. It will be better for all of us if they get resettled soon.

Garden and Orchard The green beans are done. I’ll be canning the last batches this week and next. The crowder peas are just coming on. Today, I packed up quite a few one-pound bags for the farmer’s market tomorrow. There are more out there to pick. Crowder peas are an overall joy for me. I like picking them, shelling them and, most of all, eating them.

The tomatoes are also just starting to ripen. They are ripening quite late this year. I’m happy that there is a lot of plant and not so many fruits. I really have no idea what I am going to do with these tomatoes. They are slicing tomatoes. Perhaps I will make the effort to get them to the farmer’s market.

Again, if any of these tasks falls behind or becomes overwhelming, the compost pile is always open to new food additions.

The last of the fruit is picked. I have several gallon bags of blackberries in the freezer. I can make jelly out of that at my leisure – even next year if needed. Scott harvested the elderberries this year. The bushes have been producing for a few years now but this is the first time we’ve taken the time to harvest the berries.

Elderberries are really, really small. They form small tree-like bunches all over the bush. Scott snipped off each little tree and filled a five-gallon bucket. Then he gently stripped the berries off of the twigs. I believe I have maybe a gallon and a half of those berries. I’ll be processing those in the next few days. They will be made into elderberry syrup. It’s good for sore throats and general immune system support. Lots of vitamin C.

Final Thoughts That’s about all for today. Again, I will be rerunning some older podcasts beginning soon. If I feel up to it, I may create a new one here and there. Please bear with me and please pray for Scott over the next few months.

Oh, I almost forgot. So many have asked how they can support us. Number one is please pray for us. Number two, if you live near, I may need your help from time to time to get Scott to and from his appointments – and with the hay, as I mentioned above. These are my most pressing concerns.

This will be a huge financial hit for us between the medical bills and the loss of income from products we would normally produce. If you feel moved to help us out financially, there is a very large “Donate” button on our farm website. You will find it on the podcast page.

I originally set this up for donations to support the podcast in general. I have not promoted it, instead footing the bill for the podcast from our profits. At this time, I will open it up for all of you. Not only will you be supporting the cost of the podcast, but at this time you would also be supporting our homestead in general. You can make a one-time donation or set up a recurring, monthly donation.

You can also send money via PayPal. Our PayPal email is melanie at peaceful heart farm dot com.

Please know that listening and sharing the podcast is also supporting us. It is absolutely one of the best ways to support us. Share it on all of your social media and with friends and family. That helps the most to grow the podcast.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

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Today I want to talk about what I love about homesteading. Quite a few of the previous podcasts have contained lots of information about animal predator issues we have been having. I know it has been a real downer. As for me, it has definitely been a downer and I want to do this podcast to bring a balanced perspective and more positive outlook on our life here on the homestead. We don’t always have such a bad time of it. In fact, what I love about homesteading is a much better representation of what it is like for us most of the time.

Let me take a brief minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I can’t thank you all enough. I appreciate you all so much. And I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week. We have big news.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates The greatest thing is finally happening. If all goes well over the next few days, we will have a new dog on the homestead.

Sheep and Goats We had yet another attack on our sheep. This time it was dogs. The tracks left behind were definitely from dogs. At least two. I’m not going to give the details this time, but we are down to four animals. The flock ram, a yearling and two breeding ewes. Thank God for the imminent arrival of a livestock guardian dog.

We can now rebuild our sheep flock and start a new goat herd. The most stressful thing about the whole situation is that we could not rebuild the flock or introduce the new goat breed we are adding to the homestead. I wanted to get back to normal flock size but we simply could not risk bringing new animals onto the homestead that would simply be killed by stray dogs. They are still out there. Yesterday we found dog tracks down in the very creek bed where the previous destruction occurred. It had rained hard the day before. These tracks were fresh yesterday. I’m so grateful that we have finally found a dog. Let me tell you a little bit about him.

Mack the Catalonian Sheep Dog Mack was rehomed from a family that sold all of their sheep and therefore he no longer had a job. He was born and raised in the pasture with livestock, which is what we were looking for in a guardian dog. The lady from which we are getting him has had him for just a few months. She began having a bit of an issue with him going to visit the neighbors while she was not there during the daylight hours. At night he protected his animals.

Wandering is Not Good As she does not live on that farmland where he was housed, he began seeking company elsewhere. She expected him to stay with the animals all the time. It seems that while she was only a few miles away, he still needed to know a human was around and sought out the neighbors to fill that role. We are hoping that because we are here all the time, he will be comfortable knowing we are always around and that he will be diligent about staying with the sheep. We shall see. It has been many, many years since either of us has had a dog. I, for one, am looking forward to this new adventure. I hope Mack will be happy with us and with his new flock of sheep.

Adding the goats later will be an interesting exercise in introducing new animals to Mack. I’m sure I’ll be regaling stories of the ups and downs of livestock guardian dog ownership. Stay tuned.

Cows We are still waiting on Violet to come into heat. Does it seem like to you that we are always “waiting on Violet” for something? I know it seems like it to me. We are pretty confident that all of the other girls are gestating a new calf. Will Violet get with the program? Only time will tell. She needs to conceive in the next few weeks or we end up in the same situation again. We have just a few weeks to meet our schedule of having her pregnant and due for delivery no later than the last week of April.

Quail New quail babies will hatch in a few days. I have 84 eggs in there. I’m not sure what is going to happen this time. A couple of days ago we had a power outage. A tree fell on a line during a particularly heavy thunderstorm. We were out of power for several hours. This is not a problem during any time when the incubator is not running. After about an hour, we started the generator and plugged in the incubator. The temp was quite low and the humidity was really high due to the moisture from the rain. It stabilized quickly but I have no idea how this will affect the hatch rate.

I was going back and forth trying to decide between getting a battery big enough to jump start the car or one that would simply be enough for the cell phone and credit card reader. I need those two things working when I’m at the farmer’s market. This power outage clarified that decision.

HALO Bolt There is a product called Halo Bolt and there are several different models. It comes with a small set of jumper cables, a couple of USB connections and even a place to attach a small device with an AC plug. It costs just under $100 dollars.

On the other hand, I can get a small charging device without the AC outlet and jumper cable capability for about 20 bucks. I was leaning in that direction. I just got a new car battery and don’t expect to have to use the jumper cables for quite a few years. But the experience of being without power for the incubator has convinced me to invest in the more expensive unit.

Let’s Get One and Test It Out We cranked up the generator. But that was overkill for one little incubator. The more practical solution would be to be able to plug it into that battery for a little while. At least I think that will work. It is designed for charging a tablet or laptop, but I believe you can plug in any AC cord and run the device. We shall see. I’ll give it a try and let you know how it turns out. These are the kinds of things for which everyone needs to be prepared. You simply never know when the power is going to be out. For you it might be that you need to be able to charge your cell phone. For us, it’s going to be keeping the incubator running for those quail eggs.

Garden I have three 5-gallon buckets of green beans in the cooler. We picked them Sunday evening. Tomorrow I’ll be packaging them up for the farmer’s market. They look beautiful. I’m so glad we got this great harvest. In the next few weeks, the Mexican bean beetles will come out and take over the plants. We don’t use any pesticides on our garden, not even the organic ones. We pick them off or squish them. But using this method ensures that eventually the bugs will win. Planting extra and making sure the plants are healthy and not a magnet to bugs are my two strategies for pest control and reaping a decent harvest.

There are small tomatoes all over the place out there. That’s going to be another great crop to harvest in the very near future.

Orchard In the orchard, the blackberries are all that is left to pick. Scott cleaned out the wild blackberries that have thorns so it is easy for me to pick the remaining blackberries. We still have quite a few that are red and not yet ripe. I have a couple of gallons in the freezer right now. My plan for those is to steam the juice out of them and make seedless blackberry jelly.

I don’t know what happened to the apples. We had several trees that had apples for the first time ever but those apples disappeared. I suspect the deer that briefly invaded the orchard area is the culprit there. There is always next year.

I was hoping to see the strawberries bloom again. They are supposed to be everbearing. The deer ate all of the green leaves a while back, but they have grown back and the plants look great. Still waiting on those blooms and more strawberries.

Creamery Still nothing going on here. It may be another couple of weeks before anything gets going again in the creamery. Scott is so busy with the high summer tasks of keeping the fields and orchards cut. Repairing fences takes up him time and so on. He has three or four more fields to mow and then maybe he can get back on the creamery tasks. You never know though. Some other tasks may come up. We shall see. Let’s talk about what I love about homesteading.

What I Love About Homesteading I’m just going to run through a list of things that came up when I thought about what I love about homesteading. They are not in any particular order.

Setting my own schedule The first thing that I love is that I’m in charge of when I get up and go to work. I say this with some ambiguity. It’s not like I can sleep until noon on any given day. In fact, there are still chores that need to be done on a regular basis, usually at a particular time. But as I have chosen to make those chores part of my life, I’m still in charge. I’m free to change the routine at any time. It might involve changing what animals we house here, but I certainly have that option.

Daily Planning Meetings Another thing that is an absolute delight is having daily meetings with Scott about what we are going to do on any given day. It is a continuation of the hours and hours that we spent dreaming about what we were going to do once we were living here all the time, no longer working for someone else. We still dream together on a daily basis.

Making cheese Once a week I make cheese. I love making cheese. It is a peaceful occupation. Sometimes it requires a bit of heavy lifting and that makes me tired, but in the end, I get these wonderful masterpieces of cheese on which to gaze. The entire process is still so amazing to experience, even though I’ve done it hundreds of times. To see liquid milk turn into a solid wheel or two or three of cheese is still awesome to see.

Gardening Gardening without having to work it in around other things, well for the most part. This is like saying I set my schedule. There are sometimes when I need to do things in the garden but I also need to make cheese or go to the bank or clean the bathroom and so on. So, I do end up working it in around other things. But what I don’t have to do is try to work it in after a day at the office or in a limited time frame on the weekend. I have the whole week to figure out where I am going to fit in the gardening.

Perhaps this sounds too simple. But we spent years and years driving back and forth from Virginia to South Carolina for work. I had all day Saturday and Sunday until 6 pm to get all of the gardening done as well as laundry and cleaning and on and on. The garden was always overrun with weeds. It was not really that fun. Now it is a joy. And of course it is hard work when it is 85 or 90 degrees out, but it is a good work out. And if I don’t get it all done in one day, I have other days in which to work out when to get out there and water, weed, and pick veggies.

Experiencing the Seasons Experiencing each of the seasons up close and personal is part of our everyday life. The gardens brought that to mind. In the past, we experienced spring, summer, fall and winter as changes in temperature. Perhaps whether it snowed or rained was the most important aspect of the season but daily activities remained pretty much the same. Get up, go to work, come home, watch a little TV, go to bed and then do it all over again.

Now, each season brings us a change in what we do on the homestead. There is a lot of activity associated with spring, summer and fall. But each activity is different. In general, spring time is for planting, summer for weeding and watering and the fall is all about the harvest and preserving the harvest. Some of that happens all along the way, but in general, this is how I think about my life. The primary focus in the spring is getting the planting done. The primary focus in the summer is weeding and water, though there is a lot of harvesting happening as well. It just moves around a lot from one plant to the next to the next. In the fall, it is all about getting everything in and preserved for later use.

And I never thought I would say this, but I love the winter now. It is a time to slow down, take stock of what worked and what needs to be changed in the next season. I used to hate winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder is something I have struggled with most of my life. As the winter season wore on, I would get more and more inactive and more and more depressed. Recently, in the last few years, I’ve changed my diet, eliminating most carbohydrates. My moods stabilized. Now I experience the winter with joy. I still slow down. That’s why winter is useful. It is a time to rest up and revitalize the roots so the organism is strong and bursting with energy in the spring. I’m having a great experience with that deep revitalization in the winter. And I’m ready to get up and go when spring arrives.

Losing Track of the Day and Hour Not knowing what day of the week it is or what time of day it is can be a little disconcerting. But I really only have to think about it once or twice a day. In the morning I determine what day it is and what I need to accomplish for the coming days. Things like getting ready for the farmer’s market or doing a podcast or newsletter. These things are done on specific days so I need to be ready for that. Otherwise, I check my list of things to do and get going on the first item. In the evening there is a bit of reflection on what to prepare for the next day. One of the farmer’s markets requires me to get up at 5:15 am and the other 6:00 am. Other days of the week, the alarm goes off at 6 but we may or may not get up immediately. We have some leeway on those days. But market days, we pop up and get going as soon as the alarm sounds.

New Life The new births that happen in the spring. I never get tired of the new births. It is stressful for me, as I’ve said before. But I wouldn’t trade that joy of new birth for anything in the world.

Tours for Kids Sharing our homestead with kids that come to visit. They love it so much. I watched a group of 8 kids just a few days ago which they explored the quail. They delighted in watching these quirky birds. They didn’t just look at them and say, “Oh they are cute.” No, they watched and watched and watched them. They looked into each section of the cages. They opened the cage doors and looked for eggs. It was so beautiful to see.

Clean Eating Another thing I love about the homestead is cooking with ingredients that I raised myself. I know the exact contents of everything I eat. I either raised it myself, purchased or bartered for it from another farm or homestead, or I purchased a single ingredient item in the store. This was the first and most important reason that we started our dream of living the homestead life. I get so tired of reading the labels on foods in the grocery store and seeing all kinds of things that I cannot even pronounce. There are so many fillers and everything has sugar or wheat or gluten added. Even the meats now are injected with flavoring and fillers to bulk up the product. The label says something like, “contains 10% of something or other” to maintain freshness or enhance flavor or whatever. That’s 10% of the meat that is something that did not originate with the animal. I’m so glad those days are past.

Spending Time in the Kitchen I get to spend lots of time in the kitchen storing food and being food self-reliant. When working for someone else, time in the kitchen was a dreadful activity. I wanted to eat out as much as possible. Who wants to cook after working all day? I’m ready to sit down and let someone else do the work. Of course, I was eating a lot of really bad stuff. Chinese take out was a favorite. There is a lot of sugar in that stuff. So that is all in the past. I spend time in the kitchen when I choose. Sometimes I make a meal that will last for days. In the intervening days, I might be making jam or canning pickled peppers. Canning is another task that I used to dread when I worked for other people. It was something I had to do and I had to do it right away in a limited time frame on Saturday or Sunday. It was stressful. Now there is still stress to get the harvest processed but the window of time has expanded. I have every day, seven days a week to plan for the next harvest and canning session.

Long Term Dreaming/Planning Sessions Long term planning of the next step in our journey or modifying the previous plan is just as wonderful now as it was when we were just dreaming. We spent years dreaming about what we were going to do once we lived full time on our homestead. We wanted to do everything. We soon found out that we had to pick and choose what to do. There are simply not enough hours in the day to do all of which we dreamed. But the dreaming and planning is so much fun. And it continues. There is always something new to be added, changed or deleted from our homestead.

Daily Communion with God And the final thing I want to say about what I love about homesteading is just getting up and going outside and communing with God. Living the homestead lifestyle makes it effortless. While all the work is going on and on and on, seemingly endless, there is always time to just stop and listen to the birds, feel the sunshine and soft breeze, and to watch God’s creations grazing in the fields, the children playing and the amazing plants growing and changing each day as they blossom and produce their fruits. We are truly blessed.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I may have rambled a bit here and there but I hope you enjoyed the uplifting ideas I talked about. Let me know what your dreams are and how you are progressing toward them. It doesn’t have to be the homestead life. We are all unique in our hopes and desires. Please share your dreams with me. I’d love to hear your story. Send me an email. Let me know what’s beautiful in your life.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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A day in the life on our homestead. My brother-in-law says we are always working. He is so right. And we love it. There is never a dull moment around here. For sure, sometimes it seems like just too much and wouldn’t a life of leisure be preferable. No, not really. As I imagine that life, I can only see boredom and always searching for something new and interesting. Here we don’t have to search for it as it comes to us every single day. Today I’ll give you an overview of a whirlwind day I recently experienced.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I’m going to skip most of the updates on the animals as they will show up in my rendition of a day in the life on our homestead. I will just briefly mention that Sweet Pea and Johnny are still looking for a new “forever home”. We love them but we simply do not need four donkeys. We intentionally reduced our sheep population and now the coyotes have reduced it even further. It will take time to rebuild what we have lost. In the end, we will still have only a small number of sheep, perhaps a dozen or so, compared to our high of 70 animals in the flock.

We are winding down our cashmere goat herd this fall. Next up will be bringing in a few Kiko goats. Perhaps I will do a whole podcast on this breed of goat. They were bred in New Zealand. The wild goats were bred with domestic stock to create a breed that is disease and parasite resistant. And my favorite attribute they bred for was little to no hoof maintenance. Most domestic goats in the US have a really hard time with their hooves. I look forward to raising goats that can be comfortable on their feet without constant attention.

That’s it for now. I want to get on to the topic of a day in the life on the homestead. I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of the story of our life.

A Day in the Life Our day begins the same every morning. Scott and I pray the rosary together. It’s a great meditation and starts our day off in the right frame of mind. God first.

Morning Milking Now we get ready for morning milking. There isn’t much for me to as Scott handles most of the milking tasks. I handle some of the cleanup at the end. The only thing I have for this morning is to tend to the baby quail chicks. I make sure they have food and fresh water. The little ones get checked on twice a day. The grownups, only in the evening. Everyone looks good this morning and they are happy to have food and water.

Morning Gardening Scott is still working on the milking so I take the opportunity for a brief walk through the garden. I decide to harvest some fresh herbs for the farmer’s markets. It’s a spur of the moment decision just because I have some time and it’s a beautiful morning to be in the garden. I sprint back to the house, pick up some scissors and a bucket and I’m back out in the garden in a flash. I love cutting fresh herbs. This morning it’s basil leaves, oregano sprigs and bunches of thyme. The smell is heavenly. The herbs are quickly stored in the cooler. I will package them later – probably tomorrow.

Making a Snack I need to have protein snacks quickly available. Hard boiled eggs are one of my favorites. My Corsori, an Instapot lookalike, can handle 18 eggs at a time. Six minutes under pressure, six minutes cool down and natural pressure release, followed by a quick pressure release and open the lid. Six minutes in a cold-water bath, then peel. I like using my pressure cooker because the shells always just fall off when I am peeling them.

We generally eat just two meals a day. Scott makes us brunch somewhere between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm. It is usually in that 11:00 to 12:00 range. If I plan well, dinner will be around 5:00 pm for me. Scott’s dinner is always much later. Well, not always, but usually his preference is to work outside right up until milking time in the evening. He will eat after all of that is done and he has had a shower. That’s an Italian evening meal time around 9:00 or 10:00 in the evening. Sometimes he even gets the Italian siesta in the afternoon. Most times not though.

Starting Strawberry Jam I’ve got four quarts of strawberries that need to be attended to today. I’ll be making jam. I love strawberry jam. It’s a quick job to cut out the stems and dice them up. Two quarts of cut berries and six cups of sugar. I’ll add a dash of lemon to help maintain the bright red color.

Well, the strawberries are mixed with the sugar in the pot on the stove, but I’ve got to interrupt that process and forego the cooking and canning part. I’ll cover the pot with a clean towel and get back to it in a little while. This is a day in the life on the homestead. We need to take care of some animals. I have cream warming up in the butter churn. There is still about an hour before it will be warm enough to churn into butter. It should be possible to get it all done in time.

Cattle Husbandry The flies have been horrendous. We have two suffering from pink eye. In humans we call it conjunctivitis. It is a bacterial infection of the eye. The flies irritate the eye and make it susceptible to the bacteria. The flies are also spreading it from one to another. Anyway, we put antibiotic cream directly in the eye and then followed up with injectable antibiotic. We are as natural as possible in raising and caring for our livestock. However, I’m sure you have heard me say this before, if they need medical treatment, they get it. In this case, blindness is a real possibility if the condition is left untreated.

We spent quite some time checking on each and every cow to make sure there were only two affected. I even treated Newton, the youngest calf at three weeks of age. This was prophylactic just in case. The younger calves are often the most susceptible. He looked fine but we treated him anyway. Just the cream, not the injection.

Time Trials The whole process took more time than I had planned. There were four different groups of animals. There are the milking girls. Then there is the group we call the nursery girls. We do not milk them, but they are nursing calves three calves between the two of them. We also have Luna in that group. She is a heifer and has no calf. And Buttercup is also in that group. She did not have a calf this year. The boys are always in a group by themselves because two of them are bulls. They can’t just run with the girls. That would be a breeding disaster. And then there was Virginia and baby Newton. All in all, it took longer than the hour I had set aside but the cream was still in good shape for making butter.

Making Butter I’m back inside now running the electric butter churn while the strawberries are heating up and cooking for the jam. It’s a little risky to do both of these things at once as they both have a break point that must be met. I gambled anyway. I figured the butter would get done long before the strawberries and sugar reached the gel point. It didn’t.

I don’t use pectin in my jams. I just cook it to gel point. That usually takes about 40 minutes or so. The butter got done just a few minutes before the jam reached the gel point. So, what do I do now? Well, I just turn the churn off and let the butter sit in the churn until I can get to it. I still had to be quick. The problem there is that the warmer the butter gets, the harder it is to work with. It is literally melting in my hands if it gets too warm.

Finishing the Strawberry Jam The jam is ready. I quickly fill the jars, clean the rims, secure the lids and put them in the water-bath canner. Now I have time for the butter. It will take a while for the water to heat up to a rolling boil for the jam. Once it reaches that point, it is just a matter of setting a timer for how long to process the jam. That’s 20 minutes at my altitude.

I clean up the butter by rinsing it over and over with cold water. Then squish it firmly into 4 oz silicon soap molds and put the mold tray into the freezer. Tomorrow I will remove it from the freezer and pop out and wrap each 4 oz block of butter in paper. Now that the butter is in the freezer and the jam is processing in the canner, all of the clean-up for these two tasks is happening. I’m pretty messy when filling jars. There are bits of jam all over. And the butter? That requires lots of soap to get all that greasy mess in the churn, the bowls and utensils cleaned up. Whew, it feels good to get all that done. What’s next? Yes, there is more.

Making Blueberry Jam Now I’m ready to make blueberry jam. I smashed them, added the sugar and got started heating them up. That takes a while. I have time to get more jars ready for the blueberry jam. The jars of strawberry jam are finished and need to come out of the water-bath canner. I’ll keep the water in it near boiling waiting for the blueberry jam. That makes the second batch quicker as the time to reach boil after adding the jars will be shorter. As the blueberry jam nears the gel point, I’m stirring constantly to keep it from sticking. Make sure to have my clothes covered. It begins to spit out blueberry goo all over the place. Stir more to keep that under control. That’s another mess to be cleaned up later.

Now it’s reached gel point, repeat the filling of jars, adding lids and put them in the canner. I’m a little tired but there is still so much to do. I think I’ll take a much-needed short break while this second batch of jam is processing. I have about 45 minutes or so to relax.

Weekly Newsletter It’s now late afternoon and I need to create the weekly newsletter for all who are following what we are up to on the homestead. I like communicating with all of my customers and those who just follow us because they like hearing about our progress on the homestead.

It’s important to get the information out weekly. There are always updates and changes to what is happening at the farmer’s markets. I’ve done this so many times, that I have made the process quick and efficient. The newsletter is done and out in the email ethers. Now it’s probably time for evening milking and other chores.

Evening Chores We start each milking event by warming up Newton’s milk. He gets two half-gallon calf milk bottles morning and evening. That’s two gallons per day. As a side note, tomorrow, I’ll spend quite a bit of time filling up gallon jars for just this purpose. We store his milk in one-gallon jars. Twice a day we put a gallon jar in a bucket of hot water. After about a half hour, we pour out the now cold water and refill it with hot water again. In another half hour it is warm enough for him to drink ready to be poured into the calf bottles.

All of this minutia becomes second nature as we do it twice a day. Go get the cows, get them prepped for milking, turn on the machine and put the milking inflations on their teats. Wait for about six minutes and they are done. Two at a time so there is a second round for Violet. The milk gets filtered and poured into five-gallon cans which are stored in the bulk cooling tank. The milk must be cooled to below 40 degrees in less than two hours. Then the clean-up procedures begin.

While Scott is doing those milking tasks, I’m taking care of the quail. The babies get food and water again. I collect eggs from the big girls, give them feed, and check their automatic watering system. I refill the 5-gallon bucket that automatically feeds into little cups in their cages as needed. Not a lot to do here, but a daily tasks nonetheless.

Clean Up Time At the end is lots of clean up. Calf bottles, milk filter, milking machine – all have to be meticulously cleaned and sanitized. Then dinner, a shower and it’s time to wind down for the evening. For me that is usually around 8:00 or 8:30. Scott is sometimes just eating dinner at 9:00 or 9:30 – he may or may not have had that wonderful shower.

Tomorrow’s To-Do List There is a lot more to do tomorrow. It will be Thursday. I need to get ready for the farmer’s markets on Friday and Saturday. That means making labels for those two new jams. And do you remember those herbs I cut early this morning? Yeah, those have to be packaged. I have three more half-gallons of cream and need to make another butter. I’m not sure how I got behind on that, but it will be good to catch up.

The Milk All milk cans need to be emptied and cleaned. I’ll pour milk into 14 one-gallon jars for feeding Newton for the next week. And I will pour up milk for Friday and Saturday herd share pickups. I’ll need a gallon and a half of milk put back to make yogurt on Monday or Tuesday next week. I may even pour up some drinking milk for us. Any remaining milk gets the cream skimmed off the top. I store the cream in half gallon jars.

The Cream The remaining cans usually have enough cream to skim to make one batch of butter. That will also happen next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. I make three pounds of butter at a time, usually once a week. I’ll have some extra cream to add back into the skim milk to make Scott’s half and half. He loves his coffee. In the end, there will be leftover skim milk and that gets poured on the garden. The green beans and tomatoes are loving that milk fertilizer. They look amazing.

Not a Typical Day in the Life The day I just described is not every day, but it is very often the life that I live. It is wonderful. Actually, on most days, I laze around and would only make one batch of jam and maybe no butter. Some days, Scott takes a nap in the middle of the day or comes in and just vegges out on Facebook or YouTube. Sometimes he is doing more than vegging out. Sometimes he is sharing his day in the life on our Facebook page. If you are not following us there, please do. You get my perspective here, and Scott’s perspective can be found on the Facebook page with pictures and videos. Just search for Peaceful Heart Farm and it should come right up. Like us and share our content.

Well, I got tired just talking about all of that. I think I’ll end early today. We have that luxury any time we want – within limits. The cows still need to be milked twice daily and the quail need daily care. But other than that, we set our schedule.

Final Thoughts So, my brother-in-law says we seem to always be working and when is age going to slow us down? We hope that’s a long way in the future. I’m 66 and Scott will be 66 next month. This lifestyle keeps us fit. We get to eat healthy food that we have produced ourselves. Or at the very least, we know the farmer from which we purchased those eggs and hydroponic lettuce. And the blueberries and strawberries that went into the jams came from local farmers as well. We all grow good food and support each other.

I hope you enjoyed that walk through a day in my life. As I said, every day is not that busy, but I really enjoy the challenge in finding out how much I can accomplish in a day. I’m not crazy enough to do it every day though. I also need to spend time sitting at my computer making podcasts for you guys. I love you so much. Thank you so much for listening and sharing our joy.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts or whatever podcasting service you use, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. If you like this content and want to help out the show, again, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Canning peas is great fun. We have been shelling peas for several days. That is also quite fun. I’ll be talking all about that and more in today’s podcast.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates It’s a beautiful time of year. Summer has arrived in full force. The days are often sunny and hot. We could use a lot more rain, but again, it is summer. The rains will be few and far between for the most part. That means watering the garden and orchard a lot. We really need to get that irrigation system back up and running. Oh well, it’s on the very long list of stuff we would like to do. Right now, life is all about canning peas. But first . . . how about some animal updates?

Cows Surprise! Hansel and Gretel, the twin calves, have a new home. Each day I went out there to give them their bottles I looked and them and mused about what we were going to do with them. Then God provided. A man called out of the blue. He actually lives relatively close, about an hour away. He was frantic for a calf. Just that morning one of his cows, a Holstein, had lost her calf. I was happy to say that we did have a calf he could buy. In fact, we had two and the cow being a Holstein, she would produce lots and lots and lots of milk. He could probably use two calves.

It all happened so fast. Before nightfall, this wonderful man and his wife were here picking up those two calves. It was such a win-win situation. Again, it all happened so fast I didn’t have much of a chance to think about how much I would miss seeing those baby faces every day.

Artificial insemination is in progress. It is less than a week before we see if the AI took. We look for signs from any of the cows coming into heat. If so, we do it again. Fingers crossed all seven cows and heifers are pregnant on the first try.

Donkeys Scott got all of the donkeys spiffed up with their hooves trimmed nicely. They are going to the sale barn. If you would like one of these great animals, let us know soon. Their purpose on our homestead was livestock protection. Now that we have decided to use livestock guardian dogs for that task, their jobs no longer exist and they will have to move on to help out someone else.

I will miss them, especially Daisy and Cocoa. Well, Sweet Pea and Johnny will also be missed. It was a hard decision but we have to do the best we can for all of our animals and the coyote pressure was too much for them, I think. They are miniature donkeys. Perhaps if they had been full sized donkeys, the job would have been an easy one. In any case, we are moving on with the next plan. It’s how we roll on the homestead.

Sheep and Goats I just checked the possible delivery dates for the sheep. We couldn’t find the day that we put Lambert back in with the ladies, so we guessed based on the log entries for when the animal predation stopped. Our best estimate indicates we could have new lambs the last week of October. That would be such a blessing. We really have no idea how it will go as we’ve never tried to breed the ewes for a fall lambing. Many sheep and goats will only breed in the fall for spring lambing. The katahdin breed is supposed to be able to breed year-round. We shall see.

Orchard and Garden Just before I started this podcast, I went to the spare bedroom and looked out the window to see if Scott might be in the garden. It was not likely but you never know. He has been working on fixing the deer fencing that was annihilated a few years back during a particularly difficult thunderstorm. Trees were down all over and one took out some of the deer fencing.

The game cameras we have out there indicated to Scott that there are two deer that are regularly invading the orchard. That’s why the blueberries disappeared. Likely the blackberries will be next. Something was also chomping on the green beans. I knew that would be deer. They love green bean plants.

Deer are Dear Anyway, I’m looking out the window for Scott and what do I see? There is a deer pacing up and down outside the garden. She is looking for a way to get in and steal more of our bean plants and fruit. I watched her for a little while. Then she laid down right in front of the gate into the orchard. Just plopped down. A half hour later, I looked again and she was still laying there in front of the gate. Of course, if I opened the door and looked out, she would hear that noise and likely run away. I let her rest. It seems Scott has her fenced out. No need to upset her even more.

Tomatoes The tomatoes are doing well in the garden. Again, we have to water nearly every day. Fertilizer needs to happen as well.

The tomatoes were planted just in front of the green peas. Green peas produce a whopping amount of peas and then die off pretty quickly. I had two 70-foot rows of peas. One was a shelling variety and the other were those lovely sugar snap peas. My original plan was to take them to the farmer’s market. Then life happened. They came on so quickly and there were far too many for me to pick, clean and package in time for market. I did pack up two 5-gallon buckets full and sold nearly all of those. But there were so many.

Green Peas Because they ripened so quickly and it was hot and they were drying out quickly, I simply pulled up all the plants. There was a lot of green material along with the peas. But I needed to get them out of the sun quickly. The living room floor was filled with lots of greenery for a few days. Each evening, we went through the plants and pulled off the peas.

All together there were five more 5-gallon buckets of peas in the pods. These were too far gone to sell fresh at the market so the next challenge was getting the peas shelled out so I could can them. That is still a work in progress. And that brings me to the topic of the day, canning peas.

Canning Peas Within a couple of evenings, my 3-gallon stainless steel pot was full. In quart jars, that is a nice even dozen. I figured with leaving head space and all that I could stretch that to 14 jars and fill my American Standard canner. It is tall enough to hold two levels of 7 jars each. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Shelling Peas Scott and I have spent three or four days so far shelling peas in the evening after chores and dinner. We are re-watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. When Scott saw what I had picked for entertainment while we shelled peas, he commented something along the lines of, “I guess you are expecting this take a while.” And indeed, I did . . . and do. We are nearing the end of the extended versions of the movie. I don’t really know many hours that entails. I’m thinking three plus hours for each film, so that would be somewhere in excess of nine hours so far.

We have three of the five buckets of peas shelled. I have one canner full from the first two buckets and enough peas for another seven jars from the third bucket of peas. That leaves two more buckets for tonight and tomorrow night. That should make another 14 quarts. All together I will likely have 35 jars of canned peas. That should last us a while, don’t ya think?

Canning is the Easy Part Canning the peas is the easiest part of this whole scenario. I know that some of you may be hesitant about canning. But once you know and understand how it is done, it comes down to what size jar you use and how much time will that be at 12 pounds pressure. Well, twelve pounds for us. We are over the 1,000 feet elevation mark. The standard is 10 pounds of pressure for canning just about anything that requires a pressure canner.

I have a nice gauge that allows me to bring that pressure up to 12 pounds. If I use my smaller canner, I end up using a pressure device that just wobbles and spits steam when the pressure is reached. I use the 15-pound pressure gauge to make my canning safe. And I’m ahead of myself again. Let me give you the basics of canning in a nutshell. Hopefully, you will see that it is not as onerous a task as you might think.

Experience Develops Confidence I used to think that canning was really, really hard and I dreaded the late summer as I would have to begin canning the harvest. That was years ago. After the first couple of years, it became second nature to me. You can get there as well. When canning peas, beans, carrots, corn, greens and so on, the steps are the same. The time to hold the jars at pressure is the only thing that changes. I simply bring out the Ball canning book and check the time for the vegetable I’m canning.

The steps are simple for cold pack canning. That means the vegetables are not cooked or otherwise heated. The jars are supposed to be heated, but I never actually do that.

Step One – Get Your Equipment Ready Step one is getting your equipment ready.

The Canner I set up the canner on the stovetop, fill it with three quarts of water or just enough to have about an inch and a half of water from the bottom of the canner. I add about a tablespoon of vinegar to the water. It can be detrimental to the rings, making them rust, but it makes keeping the inside of the canner clean a breeze. That’s a tip I picked up a couple of years ago. The inside of my canner had become dark and discolored. Then I saw a canning video on YouTube and the Youtuber added vinegar to prevent that. I started doing that and my canner now looks like new inside.

Anyway, get the canner set up. I turn the burner on low and slowly heat that water and vinegar. It will be just about at a boil by the time I get everything else done.

The Jars Prepare the jars. That means making sure they are free of cracks and knicks at the rim. They need to be clean and sterilized. Lots of folks immerse them in boiling water, I use bleach water. It’s faster and that means a lot to me. The canning is not hard to do but it can be time consuming waiting for this to boil and that to boil and so on. If using soapy bleach water to clean and sanitize my jars is not safe, someone let me know in the comments, along with why. My mom used to put her jars on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven for a few minutes. That was her method of sterilization.

Large Pot of Boiling Water You will also need a large pot of boiling water to pour over the vegetables once they are in the jars. Go ahead and prepare that now. There is no set amount. Guessing is my method there. Twelve quart-jars filled to the brim will hold three gallons. The peas take up lots of space so I figured no more than a cup or two of water per quart jar of peas would be plenty. In the end, I used less than a gallon and a half of boiling water for 14 jars of peas.

Canner set up, jars cleaned and sterile, water to pour over the veggies. Equipment is all set up.

Step Two – Prepare the vegetables Step two is getting your vegetables ready. For canning peas, that means shelling them out and cleaning them up. That has been the hardest part so far. It was much harder than shelling them out. That just takes time. Getting the little bits of shells, twigs and leaves out was a real challenge.

Step Three – Fill the Jars, Put Lids in Place The next step is filling the jars. Oops! Almost forgot. Add salt if you desire. I always do. One half teaspoon for pints and one teaspoon for quarts. Again, it’s the same for all vegetables. That’s why this gets easy. After a while you don’t even have to think about it.

Add salt to the bottom of the jar. Loosely fill the jar with vegetables, don’t pack them. I fill mine to just below one inch of headspace below the rim.

Next fill each jar with boiling water to one inch below the rim. I’m making sure the veggies are covered under the hot water.

Wipe the rims with a damp paper towel or washcloth. Place the lid and ring. Screw lid on to finger tight. Put the jar in the canner. After all jars are in place, put the canner lid in place and secure it according to manufacturers instructions.

Step Four – Bring the Canner up to Pressure and Start Timing Now that everything is in place, turn up the heat on the burner. Leave off the pressure gauge. That’s the big weight that lets you identify when the proper pressure has been reached. Because I have the analog reading on my big canner, I use the 10-pound pressure gauge. It will actually come up to about 12 or 13 pounds of pressure before that gauge starts dancing and letting out steam. It should dance around a few times each minute. More than that, and you have too much pressure. Turn down the heat.

Once I get that dancing pressure gauge, I turn down my heat to medium low. That is three on my stovetop dial. After doing a few batches, you will know exactly where to set your stovetop to maintain the proper pressure. Again, mine is at three. Set your timer for the recommended amount of time. For quart jars of canned peas the Ball Canning book says 40 minutes at the recommended pressure for your altitude.

Step Five – Remove the Jars When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and wait until the pressure gauge has completely returned to 0. If you don’t have the analog dial, what you will have is a pressure relief button. Once the button falls back to its resting position, the pressure is zero. If you are ever in doubt, just wait 15 more minutes.

Remove the Gauge Once the pressure has returned to zero, remove the gauge. Some steam may come out still. Do not do the “quick release” like you would do with your InstaPot. Let the pressure return to normal without any help. If the pressure comes down too quickly, the water will bubble up out of the jar. You will lose liquid leaving your veggies partially out of the liquid and you may have jars that do not seal well if bits of the veggies got under the lid. Let all return to normal naturally.

Remove and Cool the Jars After removing the gauge, a waiting five minutes to ensure all pressure is normalized, remove the lid. Using the special tool for removing jars from the canner, gently place each jar on a towel or wooden cutting board. Do not adjust the lids. Let them cool naturally.

At this point you are all done. And what a great job you did. Once the jars are completely cooled, label them and store them with your other canned foods.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today podcast. I hope you enjoyed hanging out with the animals on the homestead. Sharing it all with you is a blessing for me and I hope it is for you as well.

I boiled the steps of canning down to five. Get your equipment set up, prepare your vegetables, fill the jars and place the lids, bring your canner up to pressure, and then a proper cool-down afterwards. That’s it! I hope I’ve inspired you to give canning a try if you haven’t already. And I know you probably have lots of questions if you are just starting out. Feel free to contact me if you would like me to answer your questions. I’d love to assist you in developing your homestead skills.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

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Today’s topic is cheddar cheese. That’s right. It’s time for another trivia podcast and this one is all about cheddar cheese. Is your mouth watering yet? I must say that I make a fantastic cheddar cheese and I hope you get to try it one day.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates If you are listening to this podcast sometime in the future, your date marker is that we are in the middle of June. Almost at the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. That the crops are starting to come in already. We are continuing the overwhelmed portion of the year. It starts in spring and continues right on through the fall. Planting, weeding, harvesting, and storing food. Along the way, the animals need additional care. Breeding cycles, milking twice a day, and flies. Always the flies. This year they are particularly high in population. Large dumps of wet rain at the perfect time of year for the propagation of flies is making the animals miserable.

Cows The artificial insemination process has officially begun. The first step is to get all of the cows that are being bred to cycle at nearly the same time. This is especially important for a dairy. Ideally, the calves will be born within days of each other.

In the first few days, the cows produce a thick nutritious milk product called colostrum. It is high in fat and most importantly, it is filled with the antibodies the calves need to survive and thrive. We can save that milk for making cheese or fulfilling herd share obligations. It must all go to the calves. And there is a lot of it. We save it in jars and cans and gradually dole it out to the calves. Once we get into keeping the milk, we get to keep every single drop of it until this backlog of milk/colostrum is consumed. Then we share the awesome milk with the calves and we get less milk for making cheese and herd shares.

The reason that we need the births to be close together is the timing of who is in colostrum and who are we milking. We milk two at a time. If the calves are close together, then it is easy to just milk everybody the same. If that doesn’t happen, then we end up milking out the ones who are in the stage of producing milk we can use and then lastly, we milk out those who are still producing colostrum. Again, ideally everybody produces their colostrum all together and then we can get on with just milking everybody and not worrying about stopping, pouring up the milk and then starting again for colostrum milk for those late birthing cows. This is our second year of AI. So far, it is going well. Tomorrow, the placing of the sperm happens. Then we wait for three weeks to see if anyone comes into heat again. Of course, we hope that everyone takes on the first try. But how often does that actually happen? I don’t know. Again, we are new to this process.

Sheep The sheep are still grazing safely right outside my living room window. I think we are past the predator issues for the moment. We are still looking for a dog to add to the homestead. I don’t ever want to go through that kind of predator loss ever again.

Lambert is in there with the girls. Perhaps we will have lambs again in the fall.

Quail I don’t think I said anything about the quail in the last podcast. That’s a first, right? Well, the first batch has been processed – well we kept almost all of the girls. They filled out the breeding groups that were missing a hen, replaced one complete breeding group that was older and the remaining 10 we kept for extra eggs. They are all laying pretty well at this point.

The second group that was a really small hatch, only 19, is now in the penthouse growing. They are growing like weeds. We did lose one and so there are 18 up there on the left side of the grow out cage. Again, the right side of the grow out cage has the extra hens we kept to lay eggs for us.

Now we come to the third batch that are in the incubator. There are 72 eggs in there and they go into lockdown in two days. Two days after that, we will begin to hear some peeping. Let’s pray that we have a better hatch rate this time. We shall see.

Garden The biggest news I have at the moment is the garden. We planted lots and lots and lots of peas. I wanted them for the farmer’s markets. Well, I got my wish. There are soooo many peas out there. Today, instead of trying to pick from each plant (which I did a few days ago), I decided to just pull up the plants, peas and all. I needed to get the plants out because the tomatoes are planted right in front of them and they will need that trellis soon. It was really quick and easy. I now have piles of plants with pea pods hanging off of them. After I finish this podcast, I will be out there pulling the pods off of the plants. And the plants I pulled up today was only half of what is out there.

The beans are doing really well. I would like to get a bit of time to go out there and fill in the blank spaces where a seed here and there did not sprout. But even if I don’t get that accomplished, I’m going to have lots and lots and lots of beans and crowder peas.

There two beds of peppers. One is a wonderful bell pepper called California Wonder. Those plants produce beautiful large green bell peppers like you find in the grocery. If I leave them on the plant, they will eventually turn red. The red ones are really sweet.

The other peppers are Italian pepperoncini. I’m going to pickle them. I’ll probably sell the pickled pepperoncini at the farmer’s market. Oh, and I think there are a few banana peppers out there. I don’t know what I will do with them. Perhaps, pickle them as well. We shall see.

The onions look fabulous. I’m not sure how much longer they have before they are done. It’s easy to tell with onions. The green tops will just fall over, dry out and turn brown. That the indicator for when it is time to dig them up and cure them for storage.

Fruit and the Orchard The strawberry plants look great and there were lots of strawberries. However, something was eating them and we haven’t gotten very many for ourselves. That’s yet another project that got on to Scott’s “To Do” list. Fix up some kind of barrier to keep out the squirrels, rabbits, birds, etc that are eating the strawberries. He just doesn’t have the time right now. More on that later.

I checked the blueberries a few days ago. There are a lot fewer berries than last year. That is likely due to the bee hive dying off. We really relied on them to pollinate everything. This year we were dependent on the bumble bees for all of our pollination.

One thing I noticed while out checking the blueberries and blackberries was that we finally have a few apples coming on this year. I don’t really know how old these trees are, but we have been anticipating apples and pears for a while. Looks like the apples are coming this year. Yay!!

Creamery The creamery is on hold yet again. Scott is off doing other things. Mostly gathering hay. We tried to grow our own hay for a year or two and just found that it was simply not worth it for the small amount we need. Maintaining the equipment is always a challenge. Better to let someone else have those headaches. The person who normally supplies our hay is growing his cow herd and the lack of rain at the appropriate time led to a smaller than usual harvest. So I got on Facebook and found a couple of places where Scott could get hay. Unlike the previous arrangement, which was quite close and the hay was delivered right to us, Scott is having to haul the hay here. These are large round bales. He can handle eight bales at a time. It is a time-consuming task that requires days and days and days to complete.

In between, he is prepping the cows for the AI appointment and doing most of the milking tasks. He helps me on Mondays with making cheese and spends quite a bit of time cleaning up the large cheese vat and the large utensils. I handle the small stuff. On Friday and Saturday morning he does the entire milking routine by himself as I am at the farmer’s market. The creamery will get back on the schedule soon, I’m sure. Speaking of making cheese, It’s time for me to get to the topic of the day. Cheddar cheese.

Cheddar Cheese Let’s start with the basics of describing this great cheese. It is a relatively hard cheese. Ours is off-white and the stuff in the store is usually orange. Cheddar cheese originated in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Now it is produced all over the world.

Background In the UK, cheddar is the most popular type of cheese, accounting for over half of the country’s annual cheese market. It is the second-most popular cheese in the US. The most popular is mozzarella. In the US the average annual consumption of cheddar cheese is about 10 lbs per person. In 2014, the US produced about 3 billion lbs of cheddar cheese.

The term cheddar cheese is widely used and has no protected designation of origin even when the UK was part of the EU until 2020. Many cheeses have a protected designation of origin name. Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) is the English name for an identification form used by the EU that is meant to preserve the designations of origin of food-related products. This labeling was created in 1992 and its main purpose is to designate products that have been produced, processed and developed in a specific geographical area, using the recognized know-how of local producers and ingredients from the region concerned.

PDO The characteristics of the products protected are essentially linked to the terroir. That is a French term used to describe the environmental factors that affect a food or crop’s unique environmental contexts, farming practices or growth habitat. Collectively, these contextual characteristics are said to have a character; terroir refers to this character.

The EU’s regulation is meant to guarantee the reputation of regional products, adapt existing national protections to make them comply with the requirements of the WTO and inform consumers that products bearing the PDO logo respect the conditions of production and origin specified by this designation.

The regulations cover all sorts of foodstuff like wines, cheese, hams, sausages, olives, beers, fruits, vegetables, breads and animal feed.

Foods such as gorgonzola, parmigiano-reggiano, asiago cheese, camembert de Normandie and champagne can be labeled as such only if they come from the designated region. There are other requirements. In the case of camembert de Normandie, not only is it required to be produced in the Normandy region of France, it must also be made with raw milk from Normande cattle.

History Cheddar originates from the village of Cheddar in Somerset, south west England. Cheddar Gorge on the edge of the village contains a number of cheese caves, which provided the ideal humidity and steady temperature for maturing the cheese.

Cheddar has been produced since at least the 12th century. Financial records of King Henry II from 1170 records the purchase of 10,240 lbs. Charles I also bought cheese from the village of Cheddar.

In the 19th-century Somerset dairyman Joseph Harding was central to the modernization and standardization of cheddar cheese. For his technical innovations, promotion of dairy hygiene, and volunteer dissemination of modern cheese-making techniques, he has been dubbed “the father of Cheddar cheese”. Harding introduced new equipment to the process of cheese-making, including a device for curd cutting call a “revolving breaker”. The “Joseph Harding method” was the first modern system of Cheddar production based upon scientific principles. Together, Joseph Harding and his wife were behind the introduction of Cheddar cheese into Scotland and North America. His sons, Henry and William, were responsible for introducing the cheese production to Australia and facilitating the establishment of the cheese industry in New Zealand.

According to a USDA researcher, cheddar cheese is the world’s most popular variety of cheese, and it is the most studied type of cheese in scientific publications.

Cheddaring Process “Cheddaring” refers to an additional step in the production of the cheese. After culturing, cutting, cooking and draining, the cheddaring begins. It is a lengthy process of stacking and turning slabs of curd. The curd is then milled or broken up into small pieces again and salted before being placed in a press. The press forms the final shape of the cheese.

The cheese is kept at a constant temperature and humidity level. Special facilities or a cheese cave as mentioned before are needed to complete this part. And it will mature for anywhere from three months to two years or more.

Character of Cheddar Cheese The ideal quality of the original Somerset Cheddar was described by Joseph Harding in 1864 as “close and firm in texture, yet mellow in character or quality; it is rich with a tendency to melt in the mouth, the flavor full and fine, approaching to that of a hazelnut”.

Cheddar made in the classical way tends to have a sharp, pungent flavor, often slightly earthy. The texture is firm and can be crumbly. Cheddar cheese aged over one year should also contain large cheese crystals consisting of calcium lactate.

Cheddar can be a deep to pale yellow color, or a yellow-orange color when annatto is added. Annatto is extracted from seeds of a tree. Originally it was added to simulate the color of high-quality milk from grass-fed Jersey and Guernsey cows, but it may also impart a sweet, nutty flavor.

Clau d’ville Cheddar We don’t use annatto in our cheddar cheese. We produce a beautiful light cream-colored cheddar cheese. Bright, citric flavors at the six-month mark complement a smooth, creamy texture. As each cheese approaches it’s first birthday the pineapple notes give way to a deeper, more savory cheese with a buttery, malty finish, offering a delightful taste sensation.

At six months it is smooth and almost creamy. Aged a year or longer, it becomes deliciously crunchy, crumbly and tangy. Pair it with a fruity Pinot Noir, a strong ale, apple liqueur or cider, or a vintage port.

Our cheddar is currently only available via our Herd Share program. If you are listening to this in 2022, this statement will be out of date. We plan to be in our inspected facility in early 2022.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast on Cheddar cheese. The homestead is moving along nicely. We are moving into the summer routine. The animals are doing their thing, eating grass out in the fields. The gardens are flourishing. And the work continues to keep us on our toes. It is healthy activity and we appreciate the opportunity to share our journey with all of you.

I hope you enjoyed the Cheddar cheese information and we look forward to serving your cheese needs in the future.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Today is going to be all about honey. How sweet is that? Honey is a yummy treat that has lots of health benefits. But what is it really? And how is it made? What’s the best way to store it and how long will it last? All of these questions and more will be answered in today’s podcast.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and, as always, welcome back all of you who are veteran homestead-loving regulars stopping by the FarmCast for every single episode. I appreciate you all so much. We have lots to talk about regarding the goings on around the homestead.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let’s start with the cows. I love our cows so much. They are definitely my favorite. Well, I love those lambs too. And the goats. And the quail. And what about the donkeys? Okay, I can’t decide on a favorite.

Cows We tried again to put the milking moms in with the rest of the herd and the other three nursing calves. There is a video up on our Facebook page of Princess following Rosie around. And as you can imagine, Rosie came up short a couple of gallons of milk this morning. Well, it was worth a try anyway. Princess is a very resourceful young lady and will latch on anywhere that anyone will let her.

Violet is “bagging up”. That means she is approaching her delivery. We now have her in with the Rosie and Butter. They come up every day, twice a day so we can check on her more often. The rest of the crowd will come up once a day. They are getting retrained for the upcoming AI procedures. There are three. There is a hormonal implant that is done a week ahead. Then there is a hormone shot three days ahead. And then the AI implantation takes place. After all of that, we wait for three weeks to see if they come into heat again. If so, we try the implant once again. And that circle of life is continued.

This will be our second year of using artificial insemination. I hope it goes better this year. I expect it will. Experience always makes things go easier. Violet will be the only one not involved in this first round of AI as she will either not have delivered yet or will have freshened only a day or so ahead of all the prep. She will need six weeks before she is ready to start her next calf.

Sheep We lost yet another sheep, this time to a rogue dog, or so the tracks would indicate. They were much too large for a coyote. I say it was a rogue dog because we never saw another indication that it was still in the area. There was a very large lost dog that was listed on our county Facebook page the very next day. Are they connected? We will never know. The losses are devastating but we keep moving. We continue to search for a livestock guardian dog and pray the right one comes along soon.

Garden Scott is out in the garden today putting in a whole lot of plant starts. We have been so busy with other things that the garden tasks have just been pushed back and pushed back and pushed back some more. He is out there trying to get us caught up. What a wonderful man he is as he picks up the slack that I’m leaving out there. I sprained my hand last week and it will hurt like crazy if I work it too hard. Scott has been doing lots of things to help me out. The garden work is only one of them.

Culinary Herbs I have two perennial herbs that are going in between the sections of the strawberry patch. I already have oregano and thyme out there. Today Scott is adding the rosemary and garden sage.

Other herbs plants he hopes to get in the ground are the parsley and basil. I’m raising those as annuals. Perhaps when I have an official herb garden I will plant some that will reseed each year. We shall see.

Peppers On the vegetable front. He has two flats of peppers that will fill another two raised beds. It’s a lot to accomplish in one day. Will he reach his goal? We shall see. Whatever he gets done is so appreciated.

The peppers are those lovely California Wonder bell peppers and pepperoncini. I’m going to pickle some this year. Look for those at the farmer’s market this fall.

Tomatoes One other garden topic is the tomatoes. I only have two flats of tomatoes left. I’m taking them to the farmer’s market this weekend. Whatever is left will be planted just behind the shelling peas along the orchard wall. Scott put up a fence for a trellis there. It is working great for the peas right now. And as they come out in the next few weeks, the tomatoes will pick up where they left off.

Still to come are the beans and crowder peas. It is so much all at once and then the maintenance of fertilizer and water is all that is needed. We already have some compost tea brewing in a couple of 55-gallon barrels. We have plenty of poo that Scott gathered and put in there, then filled the barrels with water so the tea can brew. It’s a great fertilizer.

Creamery With all that garden stuff going on, what is happening with the creamery. The answer there is “nothing”. We are still waiting on the guys who will build and install the milking stanchion setup. We have now decided to add the other option that was offered to us a few weeks ago. To recap, the quote for the stainless-steel overhead complete pipeline system was way outside of our budget. We nixed that and asked for just the milking stanchion setup. They quoted us that and then added that instead of the complete pipeline system, they could hook up our vacuum pump so we could milk into buckets and then pour them into the bulk holding tank. I kind of balked at that as well. The price quote was certainly within reason and we could swing it financially, but I didn’t see the real benefit. Now comes the part about how I injured my hand and how we are likely going to get that vacuum pump working.

Broken Equipment I didn’t see the benefit because we already have the portable milkers that pump the milk into a can. It’s on wheels and easy to move from cow to cow. We can do two at a time. It really works well for us. Why change? Well, because it can fail quite easily. One evening during cleanup after milking, the cover over the vacuum tank on that little machine suddenly collapsed and was sucked into the vacuum drum. Scott and a family friend worked on getting something patched together for the morning milking. They worked well past midnight.

In the morning, we tried the newly engineered vacuum tank cover. It failed within a minute or so. Rosie was maybe half way milked out. Butter was not even close. I quickly got together what we needed to hand milk the cows. Butter was done in a little over 20 minutes or so. Then we moved to the really hard one, Rosie. She was already milked out some but there was probably close to a gallon still to go. Rosie’s teats are about as big as my little finger. There is no way to get a good grasp on it. We were getting about a quarter teaspoon with each squirt. I cannot imagine how long it would take to completely milk her out. We finally decided to just let her go and make sure we had a system in place to milk her out in the evening.

The Backup Portable Milker One other thing we tried along the way was using the other portable milker that we keep as a backup. It had been so long since we had used it that we didn’t even remember how to set it up correctly. There are lots of hoses that have to be hooked up just so or it simply won’t work. This particular milker needs to be oiled in order to function properly. Here is where I fell.

Scott turned it on and the oil shot up out of the top like a geyser, splashing on the roof of the shed and splattering everywhere. I tried to quickly jump out of the way. My foot caught on a piece of wood that we had in the ground from a couple of years ago when we had to tie one of Butter’s legs back so she wouldn’t kick the milking inflations off of her teats. My foot caught and down I went. I fell to the side and landed on the outside of my right arm and hand. Within a few minutes I felt alright. The pain subsided. I continued to do everything I had planned for the day. Basically, that was making cheese.

My Fall and Injury Over the next few hours, the pain escalated to the point that I had to get Scott to finish the cheese while I went to the urgent care clinic. No broken bones, but a good sprain in that hand. According to the PA, it was likely my osteoarthritis causing the biggest part of the pain at that moment. He wrapped it up and I kept it wrapped up for a couple of days, but it seems like everything I do involves water. I finally gave up on the wrap and have been using pain to temper my activity. It’s an imperfect method. Usually by the end of the day my hand is throbbing. Today, the swelling is almost gone but it will still be a few more weeks before it is back to normal. Scott is picking up the slack for me. He is always there for me.

The bottom line is I can now very clearly see why we might want that vacuum pump hooked up and working, keeping the portable milker as a standby. Experience is a great teacher. And all of that to say that the creamery is currently on pause while Scott does other things and we wait on the milking stanchions and vacuum pump work to be completed.

The primer coat of paint is complete and Scott has decided on the wall coloring it will be a color that is between the color of milk and butter. Nearly white, but with some yellow tone. It’s going to be glorious.

Okay that went on longer than I anticipated. Let’s get on to the topic of honey.

Honey We have had one single beehive in the corner of the orchard for several years. We have never worked this hive. The bees fended for themselves. We never took their honey. They kept it all. This likely would have continued for another few years except that our bees did not survive this past winter.

I asked one of the guys that sell honey at the farmer’s market what might have happened. He said that they also lost more than usual. If the bees unclump because it gets warm and then it gets cold again, they will freeze. They clump together over the winter and keep the queen bee in the center of the clump so she is warm. Throughout the winter more and more bees on the outside will die. The rest keep going and going, keeping that queen safe and warm. Again, if they unclump too early, the cold can kill them. We did have lots of warm and then freezing weather right behind it.

Once the weather got warm for a longer period of time, all sorts of bees came around that now unprotected hive to steal the honey. An active hive will have an army of bees that protect the entrance from just this sort of activity. Any bee will steal honey that they find undefended. It was an angry mob out there. Scott waited until it got dark and the bees went home. Then he pulled off the top three boxes, or supers, full of honey. We kept the boxes covered in a plastic garbage bag inside and away from the robber bees.

Another one of those tasks that got pushed back and pushed back and pushed back, Scott started working on getting the honey out of the comb just a few days ago. We have the honey extracted and will begin seeing what we can do about preserving the wax in the next couple of days.

So, we have lots of honey now, perhaps five gallons or so. What will we do with all of that? Let’s talk about honey.

What is honey How about a few trivia facts to get started? The honey itself is produced from flower nectar or from honeydew secreted from other insects. The bees eat the nectar or honeydew, add some of their stomach enzymes and then regurgitate the result. It goes into the wax structure or honeycomb where they proceed to fan it with their wings causing the water to evaporate.

So what makes it sweet? Whenever you see that O S E on the end of a word, “ose,” it means a type of sugar. Honey gets its sweetness from fructose and glucose. Honey has about the same relative sweetness as sucrose which is table sugar. Those of you counting calories will want to know that one tablespoon of honey is about 46 calories.

Honey use and production have a long and varied history. There are cave paintings in Cuevas de la Arana in Spain that depict humans foraging for honey. These paintings were done at least 8,000 years ago. Large-scale meliponiculture has been practiced by the Mayans since pre-Columbian times. Meliponiculure beekeeping of stingless bees. Stingless bees are meliponines. They actually have stingers but they are small and not used for defense. There are other types of stingless bees and they can have painful and powerful bites.

Global production of honey in 2019 was 1.9 million tons. The leading producers are China (with 24% of the total), Turkey, Canada, Argentina, and Iran.

How is Honey Made I’ll expand a little on how it is made. There is more to it than eating pollen, regurgitating and drying it. It all starts with the queen. Each hive must have a queen. She keeps the hive functioning. There can be only one.

The Queen When the hive gets too large, the queen will begin laying queen cells. Nurse bees take care of this cell by feeding the queen cells nothing but royal jelly. Other eggs only get royal jelly for the first few days.

Once the new queen hatches, the older queen leaves with a small swarm so the new, younger, stronger, queen does not kill her. If multiple queen cells hatch at once, they will fight to the death. There can be only one.

The Mating Flight Now that the new queen is hatched, it is her job to lay eggs and keep the hive thriving. Of course, that means she has to mate before laying eggs. This is where the worker bees and drones come in. The worker bees mainly lay drone eggs. The drones are the male bees. The virgin queen bee will only mate once in her lifetime. These drone bees wait their entire life for the chance to mate with the queen. After that they are just another mouth to feed.

The queen flies high into the sky. The drone bees are hanging out waiting for their opportunity. The strongest and genetically best drones will make their way to the queen. It’s a short life though. The drone’s genitalia will be ripped free after mating leaving a hole that will ultimately lead to his death. It’s a short life filled with purpose. His life mission to continue his DNA is completed and he dies. The queen has a storage sack where the sperm is stored and utilized for the rest of her life.

The Queen Lays Eggs The queen now returns to the hive and begins laying eggs. She lays in the cells called brood chambers. Based on the needs of the hive, the queen will determine what type of bee each egg will produce. I mentioned the queen cell earlier. It is peanut shaped. The drones are larger cells, the worker bees are smaller cells. Young worker bees are called nurse bees. They feed all the cells in which she has laid eggs.

Bee Employment The bees start out as larvae, they graduate to whatever their job is going to be when they mature. The drones, as mentioned above, hang around and get fed, leaving the hive during the day to hang out with other drones searching for a virgin queen in flight.

The worker bees are all female. Some gather the pollen, while others stay in the hive receiving the pollen and other things that are brought to her. The others will also help with making the honey. There are some worker bees that become nurse bees, caring for the eggs and larvae. Some, called attendants, even care for the queen.

Most bees live for about two months or less. All of this is happening very quickly.

The queen bee’s job is to lay eggs. She will lay around 1,500 eggs per day. And that’s a full-time job.

Collecting Pollen The older, scavenger bees will travel within a 5-mile radius of their hive to collect food and pollen using their proboscis like a straw. What they don’t use for their own nourishment in their first stomach goes to their second stomach. This is like a storage pouch for transferring what they collected. They return to the hive.

The worker bee in the hive will use their proboscis to suck the nectar and pollen from the scavenger bee’s second stomach.

Filling the Honeycomb The worker bees spread what they collected over an empty comb constructed by other worker bees. Once a comb is full, the honey needs to be dehydrated. Pulling the water out of the honey keeps it from spoiling. They dehydrate it by flapping their wings at just the right speed for just the right amount of time. Their instincts tell them when the honey is ready.

Capping the Honey Next, the honey is capped. Bees create wax from their abdomen and they layout sheets of it, capping the newly filled comb. This keeps the water out. They eat it in the winter.

That’s it. The honey is made. This is where the beekeeper will come in and make the harvest. Again, we have never done this in real time. We only saved what was left when the hive died. That’s yet another learning experience for another day.

How is Honey Stored? Honey is a staple in the kitchens of many around the globe. It is a very useful sweetener. It never goes bad and is very easy to store. Even if it starts to crystallize, it can easily be restored.

All you need to do is keep it cool and away from direct sunlight. Use a tightly sealed container. Glass or food-safe plastic are the best containers. Honey can oxidize metal.

You do not need to refrigerate honey. In fact, it will become really, really thick and harder to use when you need. You end up heating it up a little to return it to liquid.

Shelf Life Honey will keep for a very long time. The high concentration of sugars makes it one of the most stable natural foods available. It can have an almost indefinite shelf life if stored properly. You may notice that honey producers put a “best by” date on their products. It’s usually about two years. According to the National Honey Board, this is done for practical purposes because of the variability of honey. However, they do note that honey can be stable for decades and even centuries.

Do not be alarmed if your honey becomes cloudy during storage. This is simply the honey crystalizing. It is not an indication of deterioration. Raw honey with high pollen content will crystallize faster than commercially produced honey. Sometimes crystallization is produced on purpose by the beekeeper.

Crystalized honey can be easily re-liquified. Place the jar in a pan of hot water. Stir gently while heating. Do not overheat. Excessive heat may alter the flavor if the sugars begin to caramelize. The microwave will get too hot too quickly. Avoid at all costs.

Health benefits of Honey There are so many but I am only touching on five today. Raw honey has been used as a folk remedy throughout history. It’s even used in some hospitals as a treatment for wounds. Many benefits are specific to raw, or unpasteurized, honey. Most of the honey you find in your grocery store is pasteurized. The high heat kills unwanted yeast, can improve the color and texture, removes crystallization and extends the shelf life. Unfortunately, many of the beneficial nutrients are also destroyed in the process.

Good Source of Antioxidants Some types of honey have as many antioxidants as fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants help to protect your body from cell damage due to free radicals left behind in chemical reactions.

Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties Research has shown that raw honey can kill unwanted bacteria and fungus. It naturally contains hydrogen peroxide. Its effectiveness varies but is clearly more than a folk remedy for bacterial and fungal infections.

Heal Wounds Manuka honey is used in medical settings to treat wounds because it has been found to be an effective germicide. It also aids in the regeneration of tissue. Honey used in a medical setting is inspected and sterile. Do not treat your cuts with honey from the grocery store.

Digestive Issues Honey is sometimes used to treat diarrhea, though there is not much research confirming it. It is proven effective as a treatment for H. pylori, a common cause of stomach ulcers.

Honey is also a prebiotic, meaning it nourishes the good bacteria living in your intestines.

Soothing a Sore Throat Hot tea with honey and lemon is a very common sore throat remedy. It’s easy to make and tastes good too. It also works as a cough suppressant. One or two teaspoonfuls, straight should do the trick.

Are There Any Risks? There is only one risk of which I am aware. Honey should never be given to an infant under one year. I believe it is the danger of clostridium that is the problem there.

There is so much more I could share about honey but this podcast has already gone on a bit longer than usual.

Final Thoughts That’s if for this this edition of the Peaceful Heart Farmcast. I hope you enjoyed the homestead updates. Let me know if there is anything else in particular you would like to know about what we do here. Drop me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

The animals are all doing well. I didn’t get to the quail so more on that in the next one. As I said, there is so much more I could share about honey. Let me know if you have questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Livestock guardian dogs is a natural follow-on to the previous podcast about coyotes. At that time, we weren’t really willing to make that step. However, after speaking with other sheep herders, we’ve decided it is time. This is a really big step for me. I truly still feel quite uncomfortable about my ability to properly care for a dog. I don’t really know what my block is in this regard, but I’m jumping in there and I’m going to move past it. I believe some of that revolves around the years that we could not have animals that require daily attention as we were only here on the weekends. It’s an old mindset that no longer applies. I’ve learned to care for lots of different animals. I can do livestock guardian dogs.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. If you want to help us out with our mission to provide local, nutrient dense food and heal the earth, please share this podcast on your social media with those interested in following the sustainable homestead life. That’s the best way to help us grow. Now on to our stories.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let’s start with some updates on the homestead. If you listened to the last podcast all about coyotes, you know that we have been having some predator issues and we lost a significant number of our sheep. We believe we have that under control for the moment. After lots of discussions and soul searching, we have decided to get a dog. After I give you the normal updates on all of our wonderful homestead livestock buddies, I’ll go into that topic in detail. But first, let’s get you caught up on what’s going on around here.

Sheep As noted in the last podcast we lost over half of our sheep and lamb population. In fact, we lost all six of the lambs born this year. I let Scott talk me into having a fall crop of lambs. So, Lambert is back in with the girls. We shall see how that goes. We’ve never had lambs in the fall, though it is quite common.

All of the sheep are now in the back pasture again. The cameras we put out night after night indicate that there are no longer any predators coming into the area. We will be getting a dog anyway. They will eventually return and we want to be prepared.

Cows I’ve completed the registration process on all of our girls. We have three registered Jersey girls and five registered Normande girls. The breeding season is upon us. In mid-June we will start the artificial insemination process once again.

There are still a few details that we haven’t worked out in that realm. Depending on the conversation we will have with the vet will determine whether we try using embryos. The implantation of an embryo enables you to pick all of the genetics of the calf. The mom simply carries the fertilized egg in embryonic form. I don’t know much about this yet. More to come on that.

Calves The twin calves are back in the calf pasture and we’ve added Virginia to the mix. I don’t know if I talked about that last time. Virginia was sneaking in and stealing Cloud’s milk. Cloud is already supporting two calves. A third, especially a yearling, would be way more than she could support. She has a significant percentage of black angus genes and does not produce as prolifically as the other dairy cows. Butter could support three or four calves. She produces well over six gallons of milk per day.

We are still eagerly anticipating the birth of our last calf via Violet. June 10th is just around the corner. I can’t wait. The late birth may eliminate her from being in the breeding rotation for next year. After birth, it is a minimum of six weeks before she can be bred again. And that would put her insemination at the end of July and the subsequent birth date would be late April. I think we may give AI one try, perhaps two. A second attempt would have her delivering in mid-May. That is pushing it. But it just might work to get her back in sync with the other cows. Ideally, they all need to give birth from mid-March to mid-April.

This is all so much more complicated than I ever imaged. The cheesemaking process demands that you have lots of milk. And to have lots of milk, the cows need to give birth at the same time. Without that piece, you can have many weeks of small amounts of milk in the spring. If they all give birth within three weeks, that’s ideal.

The Garden The weather has delayed us in planting the garden. I’m finally ready to get the beans in the ground. It was only a few days ago that the temperatures were back down into the 30’s at night. The soil needs to be consistently warm for summer plants to grow. I think we are finally there. Look for more news on that in the future.

The strawberries are doing well. I went out there an checked on them this morning. There is one strawberry starting to turn red. And there are thousands of others that are white. It’s so exciting to see so many berries out there. Do you love strawberry jam? We sure do.

The blueberries are finished blooming and the blackberries have just started. All over the place are lots and lots of white blossoms. The wild blackberries and wild rose are in full bloom. If you live in the area, I’m sure you’ve noticed the clouds of white flowers everywhere. If you are brave and want to pick wild blackberries later in the summer, take note of where those flowers are blooming. Growing up in NW Georgia, we would suit up every 4th of July holiday weekend and go blackberry picking. You had to have long sleeves and no shorts because of the thorns. And in Georgia, it was best to have some way to keep the chiggers off of you. Chiggers are also known as red bugs. And they are a pain. Are you familiar with them? Unless you live in the south, probably not.

Chiggers or Red Bugs They are arachnids. The red-colored larvae are so small – only 1/120 to 1/150 of an inch – that you cannot see them with the naked eye. They hang out in tall grass, weed patches, and underneath trees. Any brushy or thicket – such as blackberry bushes can house them. I grew up with the popular belief that they burrow into your skin. Not true. They attach to your skin. They like tight places like in your armpits, around your waistband, etc. If they are not removed, chiggers will remain on your skin for about four days.

How do you keep them off? We took several steps when getting ready to go blackberry picking. As I said, long sleeves and pants. We also treated our clothing with insect repellent. We did use those that have DEET – and they are safe enough if you only put it on your clothes and not on your skin. And today there are DEET-free alternatives. Wear boots and tuck the pant legs into them. Then pull your socks up over the pants leg. Double protection there. But it is needed in that area as walking through the brush and bushes is a significant hazard to picking up these little guys. Once you return home, get in the shower immediately and use lots of soap while they are still wandering around. Launder the clothes in hot water.

That’s a little side note not at all related to livestock guardian dogs. Let’s get on to that topic.

Livestock Guardian Dogs There are many breeds of livestock guardian dogs and they have been used by shepherds and farmers for centuries. They are bred and trained to instinctively protect their herd from predators. The breeds can be crossbred with other livestock guardian dogs, but crossbreeding with any other breed ruins the innate ability to be a great livestock guardian dog. I can’t stress this enough. This topic comes up over and over again when I am looking on Facebook. People ask about this all the time. And the answer is always the same. Your German shepherd is not a good LGD. Great Dane and Dobermans do not make good livestock guardian dogs, and on and on. You can’t breed a livestock herding dog with a livestock guardian dog and get a good outcome. You ruin both sides of that equation. Herding dogs have wonderful instincts but they are completely different than the instincts of a guardian dog.

Breeds We are looking at several different breeds. The Great Pyrenees is probably the most well-known livestock guardian dog. They are quite popular in the US. Other breeds we are considering are the Akbash and Maremma. The Great Pyrenees originates from the Pyrenees mountains of Spain and France. The Akbash is originally from Turkey. And the Maremma is native to Italy. There are more than a dozen different breeds from various parts of the world. The thing they have in common is their breeding for livestock guardian instincts. Some are better in one or another area. It depends on what you are looking for in your particular situation.

What Makes a Good Livestock Guardian Dog? They need to be large and strong. Typically, they are very comfortable living outdoors, though they should still have a dog house or some other kind of shelter. Developing a strong bond with livestock is essential. We are looking for a peaceful demeanor unless a predator comes around. They we want them to move into action quickly. These dogs like to mark their territory. Most of them are very vocal and can bark a lot. You want that.

One of the vendors near me at the market says that she can tell when new lambs have been born by the sound of the bark. The dog will be right there with the lambs, waiting for her to come and see to the new lambs. These dogs love to work, and truly need a job to stay occupied. I know a lot of people want to have them as pets, but they can really be a handful if kept couped up in an apartment. Even a nice sized house and yard can be problematic. They need acres and acres to roam and patrol in order to be happy. They need animals to protect to be truly happy.

Other Breeds Some other breeds you may have heard of include: Anatolian shepherd, a Turkish breed; the shaggy Komondor from Hungary is sometimes referred to as the mop dog. You’ll know one when you see it; there is the Tibetan mastiff, an ancient breed used by the nomadic tribes of Nepal and Mongolia; The Karakachan is known for acute senses and a strong bond with the flock. There are just so many. How to choose?

These guys actually become part of the herd. They are always with the livestock, integrating into the workings of the homestead. Some routinely check the perimeters of the property, others like to keep watch from a high vantage point. They are not going to run off after bunnies and other small animals. They will stick close to the flock. Even after chasing off a predator, they will quickly return to their animal charges.

What Do We Need in a LGD? There are quite a few things that we have thought about so far and likely more to come. We are looking for an adult dog that already has some experience with livestock. After getting one adult acclimated to the homestead, we will likely add another that is in the puppy stage. We want to understand all the ins and outs of training as well. So, the first one needs to already know what it’s doing because we sure don’t. After the flock is protected, we can move into learning how to train one from start to finish. These dogs mostly live 12 to 15 years or so. We will likely need quite a few over our lifetime.

They are big dogs and that is a little intimidating for me. Even while still in the puppy stages, under two years old, they will be very large dogs. These are intelligent and headstrong breeds. We have the land and livestock to keep them busy – and they need that to keep them out of mischief. If they get bored, unwanted things can happen. In a household, chewing up things is not uncommon. Again, I don’t think we will have too much difficulty with that, but you just never know how rambunctious your animal might be.

Puppies vs Adults Puppies simply cannot be left on their own. They need time to mature. The teen stage can be particularly horrible for most. They are just so big but they are still puppies at heart. A dog under two years of age can easily severely hurt of even kill the very livestock they are meant to protect. Again, we are going for an adult dog in the beginning. It is much easier for a puppy to learn if it has an adult mentor.

They absolutely need proper socialization training. Without it, they can potentially be very dangerous. Their sheer size and strength mean that they can cause serious injuries to people or other animals. They can inadvertently injure small people or children during what is considered quite routine play for them. Many breeds, even as adults, have difficulty with protecting birds – chickens, ducks, turkeys and so on – as they like to chase them as many have inbred instincts to kill them. We will be looking for which breeds can be trained well in this area as we intend to have chickens soon.

Caring for a LGD The next thing I want to talk about is caring for them. This is my greatest area of insecurity. Almost all of these dogs are long-haired and need to be groomed at the very least every month. What do you think it will be like bathing a dog this big? Better get one that enjoys it. It would be impossible to handle a one-hundred-pound dog that didn’t like having a bath.

I’ve look at some of the breeds that don’t have as thick of a coat. But they need the thick, long coats to help protect them from predators and the elements. Some even have mane-like fur to protect their neck and shoulder region from the teeth of predators. It requires more effort from us, but in the end is worth the investment.

There are a few things out there in the interwebs that I have found to be myths. I think the worst one is that you can’t be friends with your dog. Making friends with a livestock guardian dog does not mean he won’t do his job. These are not house dogs and they have no such desire. They do however, love treats as much as any other dog.

I mentioned earlier about cross-breeding with herding dogs. Even worse is the idea that a herding dog can be a good livestock guardian god. Nothing could be further from the truth. Herding dogs have a completely different function. They are small and can easily be overwhelmed by large predators. Their job is to chase animals, although in a controlled way. Inevitably, they will tend to kill animals when bred with LGDs. Not a good thing.

How They Think These dogs will bark at people that visit but will not bite. Their instincts are to attack only if there is a threat. Again, the difference between an LGD and say a Doberman. That Doberman may attack without provocations. Not so with the LGD.

If a stray dog comes around, they put on a great show but will not harm the dog unless an actual threat is perceived. If there is no threat, they leave the dog alone, perhaps escorting them off the property. The same with humans.

Most livestock guardian dogs learn to enjoy killing wild predators and may even hunt them. They know the difference between a domestic dog and a wild animal.

Final Thoughts I’m so glad that we have peace on the homestead again. For the time being, all is well with the animals. The garden is moving along slowly but steadily. That means more time outside in the sunshine. It’s good for the soul. Yeah, get that vitamin D.

The perfect livestock guardian dog will be found and our animals will be protected. We will progress through yet another learning curve in caring for animals on the homestead. It’s all a cycle. One after another, after another. It’s a beautiful thing. And yes, I’m still intimidated. But I will get over it. I’m going to love having a dog. And it will be the best dog on the planet receiving the best care available from our loving hearts.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Coyotes are a plague when you have sheep. Today’s podcast is going to be all about coyotes. Probably more than you ever wanted to know. Some things about coyotes might surprise you.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates So why is the topic today about coyotes? Well, we have had issues and I need to talk about it. I’ll try to keep it mostly factual and as upbeat as possible. In the end though, sometimes homestead life has tragic consequences.

Sheep and Lambs Over a span of about 3 or 4 days we lost more than half of our sheep. All six of our lambs, including my bottle baby, Susie Q are gone. Five adult ewes are also gone. We have 10 sheep left out of 21. Yeah, it’s a big loss. I’m still heartbroken about losing Susie Q. I still look for her. When I look out the window, momentarily I’m looking for her. Especially in the evening, when I go to create bottles for the twin calves, I briefly look for the very small bottle we use for lambs. Then I remember. She’s gone.

I was unusually attached to Susie Q. We’ve had bottle lambs lots of time. But I’ve never been so attached. Well, perhaps it’s that we have never lost one. And after they are grown and no longer need me for daily feedings, I naturally let go of them. Like Lambert. He’s still out there with the boys and he was a bottle baby. I just don’t think I would miss him the way that I miss Susie Q. And we’ve had others that ended up at freezer camp. I don’t know what’s different except that she was still so young dependent on us.

Cows and Calves We moved all of the animals out of the back fields where the attacks were occurring. Scott brought out a couple of guys that hunted the male leader and we also used poison. That’s a really harsh method, but sometimes it is necessary.

The twin calves were also quite vulnerable to coyote attack. Scott moved them to a sheltered area. Virginia is also with them. We had to pull her out of the general herd because she was nursing on Cloud. If you remember, Cloud is already feeding two calves. Adding Virginia was definitely more than Cloud could support. You can likely guess that the ones who would suffer would be Princess and Winston. Virginia is about a year old and would definitely wipe out all the available milk and the younger two would be left hungry. So, Virginia is safely away from the other cows and hanging out with the twins.

Keeping the various calves out of one or another milk supply has really been a challenge this year. I don’t know if I mentioned that we briefly had all the calves and cows together. It’s much easier to maintain the pastures if there are only two groups of animals. The boys and the girls. However, having all the cow girls together immediately failed. Rosie came in for milking down a couple of quarts of milk. We suspected Princess as Rosie is her mom, after all. Now I’m wondering if it was actually Virginia and after she got a taste of milk she started looking around and found Cloud after Rosie was gone. Who knows? Rosie and Butter are in a field by themselves. The twin calves and Virginia are in the loafing space. And the rest of the crew which includes Violet, Claire, Buttercup, Cloud and her two calves, are out front. The boys, of course, are in yet another place. We have cows all over the place.

Everyone is relatively safe at the moment. Let’s talk about coyotes. I didn’t want to know all of this and I’ve left out the most gruesome of details. But the gist of the story is here.

Coyotes The coyote is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf. It fills much of the same ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Europe and Asia. Though the coyote is larger and more predatory. Other historical names for this species include the prairie wolf and the brush wolf.

The coyote is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due to its wide distribution and abundance throughout North America. Coyote populations are also abundant southwards through Mexico and into Central America. Even now, it is enlarging its range by moving into urban areas in the eastern U.S. and Canada. The coyote was sighted in eastern Panama (across the Panama Canal from their home range) for the first time in 2013.

Coyote Subspecies There are 19 recognized coyote subspecies. The average male weighs 18 to 44 lb and the average female 15 to 40 lb. Their fur color is predominantly light gray and red, sometimes interspersed with black and white. The colors vary somewhat with geography. Coyotes are highly flexible in their social organization. Sometimes living in a family unit and sometimes in loosely knit packs of unrelated individuals. Primarily carnivorous, its diet consists mainly of deer, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, though it may also eat fruits and vegetables on occasion. Its characteristic vocalization is a howl made by solitary individuals. Humans are the coyote's greatest threat, followed by cougars and gray wolves. In spite of this, coyotes sometimes mate with gray, eastern, or red wolves, producing "coywolf" hybrids. Genetic studies show that most North American wolves contain some level of coyote DNA.

Coyote Folklore The coyote is a prominent character in Native American folklore, usually depicted as a trickster that alternately assumes the form of an actual coyote or a man. After the European colonization of the Americas, it was seen in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike wolves, which have undergone an improvement of their public image, attitudes towards the coyote remain largely negative. I’m in the group with that attitude.

Hunting and Feeding Two studies that experimentally investigated the role of olfactory, auditory, and visual cues found that visual cues are the most important ones for hunting in coyotes.

When hunting large prey, the coyote often works in pairs or small groups. Unlike the wolf, which attacks large prey from the rear, the coyote approaches from the front, lacerating its prey's head and throat. Although coyotes can live in large groups, small prey is typically caught singly. Coyotes have been observed to kill porcupines in pairs, using their paws to flip the rodents on their backs, then attacking the soft underbelly. Only old and experienced coyotes can successfully prey on porcupines, with many predation attempts by young coyotes resulting in them being injured by their prey's quills. Recent evidence demonstrates that at least some coyotes have become more nocturnal in hunting, presumably to avoid humans.

Coyotes may occasionally form mutualistic hunting relationships with American badgers, assisting each other in digging up rodent prey. The relationship between the two species may occasionally border on apparent "friendship", as some coyotes have been observed laying their heads on their badger companions or licking their faces without protest. The amicable interactions between coyotes and badgers were known to pre-Columbian civilizations, as shown on a Mexican jar dated to 1250–1300 depicting the relationship between the two.

Vocalizations The coyote has been described as "the most vocal of all wild North American mammals". Its loudness and range of vocalizations was the cause for its binomial name Canis latrans, meaning "barking dog". At least 11 different vocalizations are known in adult coyotes. These sounds are divided into three categories: agonistic and alarm, greeting, and contact. The lone howl is the most iconic sound of the coyote and may serve the purpose of announcing the presence of a lone individual separated from its pack.

Habitat Prior to the near extermination of wolves and cougars, the coyote was most numerous in grasslands inhabited by bison, pronghorn, elk, and other deer, doing particularly well in short-grass areas with prairie dogs, though it was just as much at home in semiarid areas with sagebrush and jackrabbits or in deserts inhabited by cactus, kangaroo rats, and rattlesnakes.

Coyotes walk around 3–10 miles per day, often along trails such as logging roads and paths; they may use iced-over rivers as travel routes in winter. They are often more active around evening and the beginning of the night than during the day. Like many canids, coyotes are competent swimmers, reported to be able to travel at least 0.5 miles across water.

Diet The coyote is ecologically the North American equivalent of the Eurasian golden jackal. Likewise, the coyote is highly versatile in its choice of food, but is primarily carnivorous, with 90% of its diet consisting of meat. Prey species include bison (largely as carrion), white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds (especially young water birds and pigeons and doves), amphibians (except toads), lizards, snakes, turtles and tortoises, fish, crustaceans, and insects. More unusual prey include young black bear cubs and rattlesnakes. Coyotes kill rattlesnakes mostly for food but also to protect their pups at their dens. They will tease the snakes until they stretch out and then bite their heads and shake them. Birds taken by coyotes may range in size from thrashers, larks and sparrows to adult wild turkeys.

If working in packs or pairs, coyotes have access to larger prey than lone. In some cases, packs of coyotes have dispatched much larger prey such as adult deer, cow, elk, and sheep, although the young fawn, calves and lambs of these animals are most often taken. In some cases, coyotes can bring down prey weighing up to 220 to 440 lb or more. When it comes to adult animals such as deer, they often exploit them when vulnerable such as those that are infirm, stuck in snow or ice, otherwise winter-weakened or heavily pregnant. Less wary domestic animals are more easily exploited.

Although coyotes prefer fresh meat, they will scavenge when the opportunity presents itself. Excluding the insects, fruit, and grass eaten, the coyote requires an estimated 1.3 lb of food daily, 550 lb annually.

The coyote feeds on a variety of different produce, including blackberries, blueberries, peaches, pears, apples, prickly pears, persimmons, peanuts, watermelons, cantaloupes, and carrots. During the winter and early spring, the coyote eats large quantities of grass, such as green wheat blades.

Other interesting diet components In coastal California, coyotes now consume a higher percentage of marine-based food than their ancestors, which is thought to be due to the extirpation of the grizzly bear from this region. In Death Valley, coyotes may consume great quantities of hawkmoth caterpillars or beetles in the spring flowering months.

Livestock and Pet Predation Statistics As of 2007, coyotes were the most abundant livestock predators in western North America, causing the majority of sheep, goat, and cattle losses. For example, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, coyotes were responsible for 60.5% of the 224,000 sheep deaths attributed to predation in 2004. The total number of sheep deaths in 2004 comprised 2.22% of the total sheep and lamb population in the United States, which, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service USDA report, totaled 4.66 million and 7.80 million heads respectively as of July 1, 2005. Because coyote populations are typically many times greater and more widely distributed than those of wolves, coyotes cause more overall predation losses. United States government agents routinely shoot, poison, trap, and kill about 90,000 coyotes each year to protect livestock. An Idaho census taken in 2005 showed that individual coyotes were 5% as likely to attack livestock as individual wolves. In Utah, more than 11,000 coyotes were killed for bounties totaling over $500,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017.

Livestock Guardian Dogs Livestock guardian dogs are commonly used to aggressively repel predators and have worked well in both fenced pasture and range operations. A 1986 survey of sheep producers in the USA found that 82% reported the use of dogs represented an economic asset.

Protect Yourself and Your Pets Coyotes are often attracted to dog food and animals that are small enough to appear as prey. Items such as garbage, pet food, and sometimes feeding stations for birds and squirrels attract coyotes into backyards. About three to five pets attacked by coyotes are brought into the Animal Urgent Care hospital of South Orange County (California) each week, the majority of which are dogs. Cats typically do not survive coyote attacks. Smaller breeds of dogs are more likely to suffer injury and/or death.

Coyotes are one of my least favorite parts of God’s creation. I’ve probably given you far too much information on these creatures. But as I said earlier, I needed to talk about this. Thanks for listening.

Final Thoughts Living on the homestead is not always pretty. Survival is always relative to the environment. Many times, survival is a competition between humans and other species. All animals have a right to live. God made them and there you go. They have a right to live. And we also have the right to protect our other animals. Sometimes it is a small parasite – which is also deadly at times. And sometimes it’s larger animals such as coyotes and bears. Everyone is just trying to survive. I miss my Susie Q. And when I look at our decimated flock of sheep, I am filled with sadness. However, in the end, some of our flock has survived and we will rebuild. It’s what we do. Our flock will rise again. In the fall or next spring, we will have lambs again. The life cycle continues.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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What is a freemartin heifer? That’s today’s topic. It is related to one of our cows having twins. Stay tuned for those details. In other news, “is that a skunk?” That’s what I thought yesterday when I was walking out to get the cows. You never know what you are going to run into on the homestead. And the dogwood trees are in bloom what a treat. It’s different for us out here in the country. Driving along the highway, there are lots of dogwood trees in everybody’s yard. These are well-trimmed and very round trees. They are quite lovely. The dogwood trees here on the homestead are sprinkled through the woods. It looks like it is snowing in patches everywhere. I love this time of year.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. What would I do without You? I have no idea. I’m so glad you are here. I’m so excited to share with you are the various stuff going on at the farm this week. There is a lot of it.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates This time of year, everything is kicked into high gear. It seems like one thing is happening right on top of another. And when you have the odd thing pop up – like your windshield getting a ding by a flying rock on the highway that quickly expanded to a lengthy crack requiring a windshield replacement, it makes it that much busier. To top off that cute little story, you never question how much it is going to cost for those great auto-driving gadgets if something breaks. The windshield has a camera right behind the rear-view mirror that required recalibration after the glass was replaced. That lovely service cost one and half times the cost of the windshield replacement itself.

A day later I find out that the automatic headlight features are no longer working. I have to make a second trip to town for some codes to get cleared out. That fixed the problem but it took another three hours out of my day. Do you guys have days like that? You have so much to do and you end up doing something completely unrelated to anything on your “to-do” list. I still have a pending “to-do” regarding that windshield replacement. In Virginia, every county has an annual inspection that requires a sticker to be displayed on the windshield. Yup! You guessed it. That little feature didn’t survive the procedure. I got it back in pieces with an apology and a reminder that I would need to get that inspection sticker replaced. When am I going to get that done? Geesh. It has been one of those weeks. On to the homestead happenings in and around these minor annoyances.

Gardens and Orchard The strawberries are doing really well. I can’t wait for them to start blooming. Speaking of blooming, the blueberries are busting out all over. Keep the second week of June in mind. That’s likely when we will have blueberries available at the farmer’s markets. I’ll be making lots of blueberry jam again this year. At least I hope I will be.

If you’ve been around the podcast a while, you might remember that we have had some trouble with racoons in the past. These are really cute creatures and I’m willing to share a little of our abundance with them. However, when they start eating the entire crop of blueberries, that’s where I draw the line. We put up an electric fence two years ago. It worked beautifully. In fact, it worked so well that we didn’t even have it working last year and we still got all the berries. I guess the experience the previous year was so “shocking” that these little guys decided not to even try last year. I wonder if that caution will hold up for another year. Naw, let’s not test it. That electric fence needs to be reinstated in the coming weeks to ensure that we are successful in harvesting our wonderful blueberries.

The blackberries are growing lots of leaves but have not started blooming quite yet. It is a wonderful time of year when the blackberries bloom. A related plant, the wild rose, also blooms about the same time. Between these two plants, the fragrance in the air is heavenly. The goats have cleared out most of the wild rose and wild blackberries so we may have to rely solely on the domestic blackberries for our perfumed air this season. We shall see.

The green peas are jumping up out of the ground. Scott built a wonderful trellis for these lovelies. We have two 70-ft long beds with six rows of peas in each that are coming up. Peas love the cool weather. It’s a good thing they do. The temps are going to drop into the low 30’s tonight. But I expect the peas to be fine. There might be a very light frost, but we should be okay with that.

The early blooming fruit trees are done and will be setting fruit at this point. That is a greater concern. If it gets too cold, the cherries, peaches, and plums could lose their fruit. I was looking at the peach trees yesterday and I didn’t see any small fruit. Perhaps it will be all right. We shall see.

What was I doing out in the orchard yesterday? I was chasing a small quail.

Quail While I was testing the automatic waterers, one of the younger girls slipped by me and jumped to the ground. I chased her and chased her and chased her. She got into the orchard and the grass is about 8 inches tall in there. I saw exactly where she landed but when I got there, she was gone. I walked outward in a spiral, expanding larger and larger, but I never saw her. I guess she’s gone for good. Sigh! I hope she has a great life out there on her own. Hopefully, she will be able to fend for herself. It’s hard to tell though. She has always had her food presented in an easily consumable form with no effort on her part. Out there on her own, she will need to scratch around a lot to find bugs and worms and such. Quail are very carnivorous and require lots and lots of protein. I wish her the best. Who knows? She may turn up in a day or so and I will be able to catch her. We had that experience a couple of years ago. Scott lost two hens that time and we eventually caught both of them and returned them to their cages. So, there is hope.

The rest of the quail are doing very, very well. Twice a year Scott gives the quail hutches a thorough cleaning. He finished that job just as the new babies went out into the grow out cages. They are doing really well. We have 36 of them at this time. Figuring out how to work the automatic waterers is always a challenge, but they mastered it in no time.

Just this morning 72 more eggs went into the incubator. The second cycle of baby quail has started.

Sheep and Lambs We are done with the lambing season. The last ewe delivered twins a few days ago. Girls!! Yay!! They are doing very well. We ended up with three girls and three boys. Six healthy lambs. Susie Q is still getting her bottle twice a day, but she has been turned loose with the rest of the sheep and lambs. I’m thinking she doesn’t like this very much, but she is getting used to it. Because she was so attached to Scott and myself and literally never left our side, it was important for her to start spending her time with other animals. After all, she isn’t a human and she needs to make friends with the other animals.

It seems to be going well. I always feel sorry for these lambs that have no mother caring for them. But they seem to do very well in spite of their orphan status in the flock. Lambert is our flock ram. He was a bottle-baby last year. Look how far he has been elevated in status. I’ll probably keep Susie Q as a flock ewe also. The bottle babies are somewhat like pets. Not exactly, but definitely more special than the others.

Cows and Calves Violet is the only animal we have left who has yet to deliver. She is not due until the first week of June. It’s always a relief when we make it through this delicate time for all of our female creatures. Scott briefly talked about having a second set of lambs in the fall. I am not in favor of this as it is quite stressful for me when our ladies are nearly term. I’d rather keep it to just a couple of months in the spring. My nerves need a rest for the remainder of the year.

Butter produced a very big surprise for us. If you haven’t seen and heard Scott’s video on our Facebook page, you have to get over there and find it. It was posted on Thursday, April 15th. He is filming the results of him helping Butter deliver this cute little girl when all of a sudden, he sees another set of hooves. Here’s a link to that post. It’s hilarious. Watch to the end.

The twin calves are really cute. However, there is a problem when twins are one boy and one girl. The heifer calf, the girl, is most likely what is called a “freemartin”. That’s the topic that I want to dive into with more detail.

Butter’s Surprise I had Butter pegged for delivery in late May, not mid-April. I’m not sure how I got so far off on those calculations. I think I was planning ahead on my spreadsheet, estimating where the dates would fall with various scenarios and neglected to put the dates back to their original settings. About three or four days before she gave birth, it became obvious that my calculations were off. Her udder swelled up and she was just huge. And it was the day before she gave birth that I had the very strong thought that she might have twins. She was really huge. It really is hard to tell though. When they fill their belly up with hay and grass, it can get really big even when they are not pregnant. Add pregnancy and they all look really huge just before they give birth. I just had that very strong thought and then she did, in fact, have twins.

There is no problem when the twins are both girls or both boys. But when one is a boy and the other a girl, there are definite issues. Nothing like they will die or anything like that. No, they will be quite healthy. It’s the freemartin phenomenon to which I am referring. What? You don’t know what that means? Neither did I.

We had actually purchased a calf that was a likely freemartin heifer when we purchased our first milk cows, Claire and Buttercup. We purchased Beta because the price was right and we wanted one additional cow strictly for beef. So, what is a freemartin heifer anyway? Here is the low-down.

Freemartin Heifer The term freemartin refers to an infertile female mammal with masculinized behavior and non-functioning ovaries. The animal originates as a female with the double X chromosome, but during gestation acquires the male, XY chromosome. This can only happen with a male/female twin gestation. As I said, as long as there are two girls or two boys, there is no problem. This occurs in all cattle species that have been studied, and it can also happen occasionally in other mammals including sheep, goats and pigs. We have never seen this in our sheep and they deliver mixed male/female twins all the time. So, I have to think it is quite rare in sheep. Sheep and goats deliver twins and even triplets all the time. However, natural twins in cows only happens about .5% of the time. About one in every 200 births. A large cattle herd of 200 or more cows would see twins regularly in any given calving season.

With the male/female twin calf set, they not only share the uterus but they also share the placental membranes. That’s where the problem arises. The joining of the placental membranes occurs at about the fortieth day of gestation. After that happens, the fluids of the two fetuses can easily mix. There is an exchange of blood and antigens that carry unique characteristics of bulls and heifers. In the end, both will have some characteristics of the other sex.

The male is only affected by reduced fertility. In the female, over 90% of them are completely infertile. That makes her a freemartin. One who is genetically female but has characteristics of a male. Ovaries generally do not develop correctly and are small. There can be other structural anomalies as well. In the end, freemartinism cannot be prevented. And it really is rare. Even with any set of twins, there is a 50%-50% chance of same sex calves. If I do the math correctly, that means that 1 in 200 births would produce twins and at least half of the time, those twins would be fine – twins of the same sex.

Anyway, that’s the story of our twin calves. They are cute beyond measure, but likely we have two steers. I don’t know about the Hansel. Oh, I forgot to mention we call them Hansel and Gretel. So, I don’t know if Hansel will make a decent bull or not. But we can be pretty sure that Gretel will never produce a calf. What do you think we should do with these two calves? We currently are bottle feeding both of them. They could be sold as bottle babies. We could raise them as steers. We could try to breed Gretel when she is old enough. We could raise Hansel as a bull. He is 50% registered Normande and 50% registered Jersey. If he is fertile, he would make a fine bull for somebody.

Let us know what you think.

Final Thoughts That’s it for this podcast. It’s a great time of the year here on the homestead. I’m so glad to be nearly finished with birthing. As I mentioned it is quite stressful for me. I just never know what to expect. We have beautiful lambs and beautiful calves. We are truly blessed. The joy of watching all of the plants and animals grow will fill our lives for the next several months.

I hope you all are having a wonderful spring season as well.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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So much going on with spring births on the homestead. And abandoned lamb was the immediate task to take care of today. A quick trip to town to get supplies and now I’m late getting to this podcast. That’s what it’s all about on the homestead. I have so much to share with you today and most of it is so much fun!!

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the homestead this week. As I said there is a lot of it and all relates to spring births.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Before getting to that abandoned lamb, let’s start with the garden and the birthing of new plants.

Spring Garden If you are new to gardening perhaps you are not familiar with the terms spring garden, summer garden, and fall garden. Spring is the time of year to plant crops that thrive in cool weather. Some can thrive in the heat, like maybe potatoes. But most spring garden plants require cool temperatures. Things like lettuce and spinach will simply give up and go to seed if it gets too hot. Other things like root crops will just not grow in the heat. Their growth stalls and there is nothing to do for it but try again in the fall when the weather cools off again.

This spring we are planting two kinds of peas, snap peas and shelling peas. Shelling peas are those green peas that you buy frozen or canned. Snap peas are best for salads and such. They are eaten pod and all, though they can be shelled as well. But the pods are sweet and crisp.

I’m not going to plant potatoes this spring although Scott did dig up the potatoes that we had left in the ground over the winter. They were just starting to sprout and grow again. Really, we should have had them out of the ground a week or so ago before they sprouted. Fortunately, there are not tons of them. We will be able to eat them before they get soft. In the normal course of planting, I would have planted some of them for a new crop. I have enough potatoes and will forgo them this spring. Perhaps in the fall.

I have yellow, red and white onion sets to plant. Onions make bulbs according to the amount of light they need. There are short season, mid-season and long season varieties. Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other northern states can grow those long season varieties. During the height of summer, the hours of daylight are significantly higher than we get in Southern Virginia. And farther south from us, only the short season varieties will grow. The farther south you get, the more equal the day and night hours become. While far in the northern States like Alaska, they have sunlight nearly 24 hours at the height of summer. Of course, it is dark for nearly 24 hours in the winter also.

Strange place, Alaska. I was there twice. Once near the spring equinox and the days and nights were fairly equal. But the second time I was there in July, just past the summer solstice. The sun was still up at midnight. It dipped below the horizon for about 3 hours and then daylight began to show once again. It happened in Germany also. I was there in August and it was daylight past 11:00 pm and the sun was back up long before I got up in the morning.

So that’s the story of onions. The rest of the garden will get planted in May. That will be the green beans, herbs and crowder peas.

The 500 strawberry roots are all planted and looking great. Leaves are visible on almost all of them. The beds look fantastic. Scott did a great job there. That bank of strawberries will also have four sections of culinary herbs. I already have a good stand of thyme and oregano. Inside I have started more rosemary as it didn’t do so well last year and I just let it go over the winter. It can survive the winter but needs protection. It did so poorly that I just decided to start over this year. And just today I got some garden sage seeds to fill in that fourth section in between the strawberries.

The blueberries and blackberries are leafing out. The blueberries will bloom soon and we will have berries around the first or second week of June. The blackberries will be ready in mid-July.

On to the cows.

Cows and Calves Last time I talked with you, we had one calf. Now we have three. Rosie, our new Jersey heifer gave birth to Princess. Then Cloud gave birth to Winston. And finally, Claire gave to birth to a, yet unnamed, bull calf. No one has had any trouble so far, knock on wood. Butter and Violet have a bit of time to go before giving birth, Late May and early June respectively.

Now to the fun part of the cow story. Rosie, though she is her first calf, was giving about 2 ½ gallons of milk per day. We were estimating in the beginning because Princess was getting her share so we guessed about how much she was drinking. We were getting about a gallon and a half in the beginning and guessed Princess was getting about a gallon a day. Well, it didn’t take long and we were getting a gallon a day – and then a few days later, a half-gallon or even less. Princess was getting it all.

At this point, we would normally separate momma and baby and control the amount of milk baby is getting. Calves need about a gallon or so of milk to grow strongly. Certainly not two gallons. But they will drink everything they can if you let them. Take a beef cow for instance. Those calves are never going to get more than a gallon or so a day because that is all momma is going to make. But the dairy cows make lots and lots of milk and the calves simply don’t need that much. So what were we to do.

We came up with a very good plan. During this time when the milk volume we were getting was diminishing rapidly, Cloud had given birth. We cannot milk Cloud anymore. About mid-season last year, something spooked her and she began kicking the milking inflations off. Then she began kicking more and Scott got quite a few bruises and even a really badly sprained thumb from her kicks. We had to stop milking her. We thought we might try again this year if she perhaps had calmed down a bit. No luck there. We had her walking into the stanchion before she even gave birth, just getting her used to coming in and getting a little treat. They all get this training. It makes it easy to work with them for just about any vet treatment. Anyway, she got startled again by something and started kicking and we weren’t even trying to touch her udders. That answered that question. Cloud would not be milked this year either.

This is also a dilemma on a homestead. Every animal needs to have a purpose. Her purpose was to have a calf every year and to be milked. Now half of her purpose was eliminated. That means she has become more of a cost than a benefit. And even though we love all of our milk cows, we simply cannot afford to have any of them as pets. They must cover their own expenses at the very least. And of course, we really need them to provide some income. Otherwise, we are using our precious time to maintain a cow that is not giving much in return.

This year, she got a reprieve. We figured out how she could pull her own weight. She could become a nurse cow. Separating a calf from mom is normally a loud experience for three days. However, we separated Princess from Rosie and began grafting her onto Cloud. Princess was happy with the arrangement. Rosie was not. She still moos at Princess all the time. Princess ignores her and has since the second day.

A cow will sometimes easily take on another calf. In fact, we have had issues in the past with calves nursing on any cow in the area. Our Normande cows are pretty willing to let anyone nurse. Cloud was not quite so willing as Claire and Buttercup, but we were confident she would eventually accept Princess as her own.

We put Princess in with Cloud and Winston. And we had them separate from the rest of the crew for the exact reason I just described. We didn’t want Winston browsing around and finding milk beyond Cloud. Anyway, each day we bring all three up to the milking shed. Cloud goes in the stanchion and her head is locked in. She can still see who is back there nursing and the first day, she kicked Princess off repeatedly. Princess is quite resourceful and persistent. She was hungry after all. It didn’t take long for her to figure out how to position herself so that Cloud could not reach her with her kicking. She would get almost right up underneath Cloud with her butt close up next to Cloud’s front legs and her body nearly underneath Cloud’s belly. Cloud is locked in the stanchion and can’t walk away. The first two days, Princess was voracious in nursing. We were relieved and confident that she would be fine. She was filling her belly at least once a day. The third day or fourth day, Princess did not persistently try to nurse. In fact, she was rather disinterested in nursing at all. That told us that she was getting at least some nursing in earlier in the day.

As of yesterday, I did not see Cloud even push her away. At all. Princess was getting some milk with persistence in previous days. Now she is nursing whenever she wants. It’s a done deal. Cloud now has two calves. And we now have that full two and a half gallons of milk.

A yesterday and today’s bonus is that Rosie all of a sudden started producing even more milk. We believe it is the warmer weather. She now gives us over three gallons every day. That is fantastic for a first year Jersey cow of her size. Remember, she is still quite small in stature.

I can’t wait to see how Butter does this year. We are expecting in excess of five gallons a day from her as she is now a seasoned Jersey cow. Butter is as tall as any of the Normandes. She looked like a mini cow when we first got her, but she is definitely full grown now.

That’s it for the cow stories. Now on to the quail.

Quail Babies Just a brief tale here. We had 68 eggs in the incubator. There were 40 of those eggs that hatched. We lost three babies in the first day or so and now have 37 quail babies in the brooder. They are about 10 days old now and have nearly all of their feathers. In about 8 days, they will be fully feathered and strong enough to go out on their own.

We will do our semi-annual deep cleaning of all of the quail cages just before we turn them out into the grow out cages. The breeder cages also get a deep cleaning during this time. We will sterilize and treat the cages for mites. They will all get fresh new sand in which to take baths and the automatic watering system will be started up again. The automatic waterers don’t work well in winter as the lines and water cups freeze over. Instead, I take fresh water out to the birds every day from late fall to late spring.

So, the cycle of birds is in motion. I’ll keep you updated on each new batch of cute quail chicks.

Sheep and Lambs The biggest spring birth story is the lambs. It would have been nice to have a 100% success rate like we achieved last year, but alas, we knew it was not likely. Lambs are delicate animals in the beginning.

The first ewe’s lamb was born without a hitch. He is strong and healthy. The second ewe, not so much. She had a big beautiful boy and a very, very tiny girl. The girl was born an hour or so later and we suspect that she was in the birth canal too long and was oxygen deprived. She passed within a couple of hours. She was never able to get up.

We only have four ewes giving birth this year and I thought perhaps that would be the only issue. Unfortunately, that was not the case. This story has a better ending. I had to rush into town to get colostrum for an abandoned lamb. In all of our 11 years of raising sheep and lambs, this was the first abandoned lamb that we had. Well, Lambert was close to being abandoned. That was two years ago. He was small and one of three. The other two were getting all the milk and we ended up bottle feeding him.

Today’s spring birth of lambs was, again, twins. But the ewe never touched the second lamb. Right after milking this morning I went out to check on the ewe because I could tell she had given birth. I had looked out the window and I could see the one up and running around. He was already dry. But she was laying down and straining again, so I thought another was on the way. And perhaps she was having an issue as the other was already standing up quite strongly and dried off. I feared a repeat of the previous situation where the lamb was damaged in the long birthing process. Nope, not this time. When I got out there the lamb was born and was actually standing up. She was significantly smaller than her brother, but still quite strong. She was as wet as she could be and still standing strong. I could tell that mom had not licked her at all. Who knows why it happens? But it does happen. Mom just rejects one of the lambs, usually the second or third one. As I said, we have had lots of issues with lambing but this was first time we had experienced the complete abandoning of a lamb. I tried rubbing the birthing fluid that was still on the new one onto the older one. Perhaps I could fool mom into accepting both as hers. No luck. She simply ignored the other lamb.

What to do? What to do? We quickly put all three in a smaller enclosure. We tied up mom and put baby girl underneath her and showed her where to nurse. While this little girl was strong, she seemed to have no clue as to how to nurse. Finding the correct location was no issue, but latching on was not going well. We fiddled with her for about an hour before giving up and deciding that we were just not going to be able to get her to nurse. And even if we did, mom was going to push her away, or walk away and leave her behind. She had already done that. When I first arrived, she took her boy and moved away from me. I brought the girl up to the boy and laid them together. Mom approached as a I walked away. She sniffed and licked the boy and completely ignored the girl. Then she walked away again with her boy in tow, abandoning the girl.

So, what happens when a lamb is abandoned? Well, we have to get colostrum into her within 24 hours. If you ladies out there have children you know what I mean when I say colostrum. Or if you have your own homestead you will know what I’m talking about here. For those of you still considering and learning, colostrum, not milk, is created for about three days or so. In sheep it contains lots of protein and a higher amount of fat than other species. The fat is important for lambs. The other really, really important part of colostrum is it contains the antibodies for common ruminant diseases. Lambs, kids, and calves can survive without it, but their chances of getting sick and dying due to lack of the antibodies to fight the infection is very, very high. All newly birthed ruminant animals need that colostrum for survival. On top of that, the ability to absorb the antibodies declines quickly after 24 hours. Therefore, it is imperative that the newborns get that colostrum immediately.

Once we made the decision to bottle feed the new lamb, we now needed the supplies. We have never really kept lamb colostrum on hand since we reduced our flock to a half dozen ewes. We picked the best moms and we’ve never had an abandoned lamb, as I said. I was aware that this stuff can be hard to come by for lambs. All kinds of calf colostrum which will do in a pinch. But the lambs really need the extra fat. That means I had to get on the phone and find some ASAP. The closest Tractor Supply that had some was an hour away. No problem, put everything else on hold, get in the car and make the trip.

I got back with the goods, fixed up a bottle for her and she drank it down in a couple of minutes. She is a really strong lamb and I think she will do fine. The other thing I needed to find was lamb milk replacer. Again, this formula needs to be made for lambs. The fat content of ewe’s milk is very high compared to cows or even goats. Fortunately, the Tractor Supply store that had the colostrum also had the lamb milk replacer. Phew. I got it all done. I feel pretty good about this little girl’s chances of survival. It was as flurry of activity, but that’s pretty normal for homestead life in the spring.

There is one more ewe still to give birth. Praying all goes well for her.

Final Thoughts That’s about all I have time for in this podcast. It’s time to go bring up Cloud and make sure once again that Princess is being fed properly and we need to give Cloud some calorie treats daily as she needs to supply milk for two calves. I’ll feed and water the baby quail and get another bottle of colostrum ready for the ewe lamb. She will get fed at least three times a day for a few days. Then it will drop to twice a day for at least two months.

It’s all in a days work on the homestead.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

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We’ve learned a lot about homesteading and living the homestead life over the past 16 years. Today I want to share some of that with you. If you are looking at moving to a rural setting, dreaming of it or simply respect those who do make that choice, there is always so much to learn. One of the benefits of the lifestyle is that everything changes on a daily basis.

Let me take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. It makes my podcasting life worth it. Thank you so much!

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I’m not going to say much about the animals this time, except in the context of the rest of the podcast.

I will say that we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of lots of babies on the homestead. I’ll have much more to say about that in the next episode. Cloud and Claire are “bagging up”. That means their udders are toning up and filling with milk and birth is imminent. Cloud’s due date is only three days away and it is seven days for Claire.

We could be seeing baby lambs in just two days. We shall see. They are pasture-bred and the first possible date is in two days. Of course, their actual delivery date is determined by when they actually came into heat and were bred. Was anyone bred on the first day? Who knows. The next two weeks will be fun for lambs.

The 68 quail eggs in the incubator go into “lock down” tomorrow and within two to three days we will hear the peeping of the first hatching babies. Lots and lots of new babies from all sorts of species in the upcoming week.

Garden and Orchard I’ll briefly mention that the garden is getting cleaned up as I speak and we are nearly ready to plant peas. The 500 strawberry plants have arrived and those will be planted in the next couple of days. It’s the usual spring rush. Babies born and gardens planted.

I have lots of tomato plants growing strong that will be ready for the market in a few weeks. The California Wonder peppers had to be replanted. I also have some hot peppers that are doing well. The herbs are moving along slowly and that is normal. All will be ready for your gardens in May and June.

Creamery Work on the creamery is paused as we get the garden going. The dairy inspectors came by today and approved all we have done so far. They also provided new resources for getting the milking parlor up and running. We have a good relationship with these two people and they always provide us with great information.

I want to move on now to my topic of the day. There is much to say and I’m trying to keep this to ½ hour or less.

We’ve Learned a Lot About Homesteading and Operating a Small Business Every step we take seems to correct some other step that we made previously. Our journey started way back in 2003 when we bought our first piece of property and moved onto that property in 2005. Well, let me back up a little bit. It really started the idea back in 1999 and 2000 when Scott and I first met. We spent hours talking about living the sustainable, homesteading lifestyle. It was a mutual passion to learn to provide as much of our sustenance as possible on our own. And that dream leads to the final point that I will cover today. More on that later.

We Read and Read and Read There is so much to learn. It’s not like you just put a seed in the ground and it grows. That doesn’t happen. We took a step-by-step approach, learning about one thing, then another, then another. Some people just jump right in and do everything at once. We continued to work outside jobs so that just wasn’t the right move for us. Our method was to learn a lot about one aspect, give it a try, and make other choices based on what we discovered.

We learned about gardening. Raising animals was also a central study. We went from chickens to sheep to milk cows. Other animals were added along the way. Each one involves a learning curve.

First, We Thought About a CSA While still in the talking and reading stages way back in the early 2000’s we thought about starting a CSA. After we bought our property, we even started a few raised beds just to get our feet wet. In the end, we decided vegetable gardening and CSAs were not for us. Part of that decision was based on the fact that all of our land was on rolling hills. There were no flat places to make gardens large enough to grow the amount of produce needed to sustain a business. Changing the landscape was visually undesirable as well as financially impractical. The work was excessive and not conducive to our aging bodies. We wanted exercise as part of living into our twilight years, but we didn’t want hard labor. Of course, the hard labor can be reduced with equipment. But again, we are talking financial investment. The idea of a CSA just did not make our hearts flutter with anticipation. Growing for ourselves, yes. Growing for profit for others . . . not so much.

For those unfamiliar with the term “CSA”, it is simply an agreement between the farmer and his customers that they will invest in the farm for the year or season and the farmer will produce food for those customers. Each week they pick up the results of what has been farmed. I’m giving a very bare bones view of this process. The farmer has to calculate what they believe they will grow, communicate that to the CSA members so they know what to expect, and then there is the actual growing of the food. Many unfortunate things can happen along the way with a CSA. We participated in one for quite a while when we were commuting from VA to SC every week. We supported a local farm in Beaufort, SC until they went out of business. It was a sad thing. The farm had been in the family for a very long time. The owner and his son were making a last stand with the farm with this CSA. They produced lots of great food. And I believe they were profitable. At least they were profitable enough to stay in business . . . and then the rains came. The floods came.

Disaster Strikes and Ruins a Small Farm This was back around 2012, 13 or 14. I can’t remember exactly. Some of you may remember when much of South Carolina and North Carolina were under water. It wasn’t a hurricane – at least not directly. No, it was simply rain, rain, rain and the rivers were flooded. The low lands were flooded. Eventually, much of these two states were flooded. Many crops were lost. Many animals were lost as rivers overflowed farms were flooded. Horses, cows, pigs – and many other animals were lost. To be fair, lots of people joined in and saved many. In the end, the losses were too much for our family farm CSA. The farm survived, but many customers were lost.

Non-farmers do not understand or change their mind when they find that a CSA means sharing the risk. You are investing in the farm just as the farmer does. In the end, whatever the farm produces is what you get for your money. And the weather or disease or some other disaster can devastate plants and animals that form the basis of a farmer’s income. Disaster happens. The farm produces nothing or nearly nothing. The farmer takes his losses and keeps going. Many times, CSA members just move on and go back to buying from the grocery store where they can be guaranteed of receiving product for their money. We understood and continued to support our farmer. But too many others did not. The farm continued for another year or so, but ultimately succumbed to the losses from the floods.

The Upside of CSAs I don’t mean to turn anyone away from this idea. CSAs are great and we have many in our area that are doing very, very well. The resent pandemic has been a boon for many of them. There were times when food shortages were prevalent in the super markets. CSA farms got lots and lots of new customers. Suddenly, the produce from a local farm was more accessible than food from the grocery store. It does work both ways.

I’ll wager that many of you are interested in this lifestyle simply because the food supply chain seems a bit unstable. You want more control over your food supply for you and your family. The pandemic has been quite the motivator for many of you who have been sitting on the fence for quite a few years, putting off fulfilling your dream of self-sufficiency.

You will definitely want to stay tuned and pick up a few more tips and benefit from some of our learning experiences.

Reusable Canning Lids Work The pandemic also brought shortages for those of us already in the thick of growing our own food. It came in the way of not being able to find the seeds we needed. Canning supplies were, and still are, in short supply or completely unavailable. I’ve picked up extra jars as they became available. Those jars come with lids. But the jars I already have need lids and those are still unavailable. Fortunately for me, I have a large supply of reusable lids. If you haven’t tried, these I say give them a try. I don’t use them for things that I can for the farmers market, but I use them successfully for our own food stores.

The brand I use is Tattler. I bought literally hundreds of these quite a few years back and wasn’t really using them because I had plenty of metal lids. I had used them enough to know that they worked really well. Even though there are lots of reviews out there that say they don’t seal well, I have found them to seal just fine. Sometimes you just go for it and give it a try. I treat them differently than the metal lids.

With the metal lids, you tighten them finger-tight and then don’t tighten them again. Lots of times they come out of the canner quite loose. With the Tattler lids, I tighten them finger tight before putting them in the canner. But I immediately crank the metal ring down tight when I bring them out of the canner. Using this method, I have a 99% seal rate. I will occasionally have one jar that doesn’t seal properly and we eat that veggie with a meal within a few days. But most jars seal just fine.

You will know the jar isn’t sealed by testing the lid about 24 hours after it comes out of the canner. Take off the metal ring and pull up slightly on the edge of the lid. If it comes free, refrigerate that product and use it within the week. You can also try again with that jar if you have another batch ready to go in the canner. Make sure the rim of the jar and the lid and seal are very clean, then give it another go. I don’t usually do that. I’d rather just chalk it up as the occasional failure and just eat it.

The Homestead Garden and/or CSA Even though a market garden is not the center of our life, gardening is still a part of our homestead. It really does take a lot of veggies to provide for your needs year-round. . . more than you think. What you grow depends on what you and your family want to eat. For instance, I gave up growing lots of lettuce. Scott has always said that he really likes vegetables – and he does. However, he is not a big salad eater. Green beans, asparagus, peas, carrots and so on. Basically, cooked vegetables are the ones he wants. Now I only grow these kinds of vegetables. If I want lettuce – and I do especially this time of year, I buy it from one of the growers at the farmer’s market.

Animals on the Farm There are lots of things to learn about having animals on the farm. Start with your comfort level. Chickens are a great entry into raising your own animals. And prepare yourself ahead of time for the ultimate end. Those chickens or rabbits or whatever are there for you and your family to eat. Homesteading really gets you in touch with what it takes for humans to survive. There are lots of animal rights activists out there that do not want you to eat meat because an animal has to die. Unfortunately, our evolution as a species has been, and continues to be, dependent upon eating meat and fish. Civilizations evolved by living near the water. Seafood was available. Salt was available. Green things grew near the water. And animals would come to the water to drink and could be harvested for food for our tribal families.

I’ll admit that I have yet to actually kill any of the animals on our homestead. Scott has always done that for us. Or we take the animals to a USDA inspected facility for processing and someone else does all of that part for us. Having said that, I have no doubt that if I was the only one available to do the deed, I would do it. I would say a prayer to God and do it. This is a hard one for many people. Becoming vegetarian is an option I suppose. And perhaps many of you have already made that choice. It’s a valid choice. I don’t believe the entire world will ever be vegetarian. It’s just not sustainable for those living in northern climates. Homesteaders there may have to come to a peaceful place with knowing that animals die so that they can live there. Not everyone can live in the tropics and grow vegetables year-round. And the need for protein still exists. I’m not educated enough to know what it would require for a vegetarian to grow enough beans or grains to fill their needs for protein.

Not Everyone Will Agree with Your Choices There are those in your circles who will continually ask you “why are you doing this?” Sure, we could have kept on working our very lucrative jobs and buying good quality food from local farmers. We didn’t need to do it ourselves. There are lots of other things we could be doing. Making lots of money, traveling, and so on. I think about that sometimes. But on the other hand, I’ve already done a lot of that. I’ve traveled all over the US and a few places in Europe. I loved it. But then the airline industry went down hill and traveling all the time became more of a hassle and less of an adventure. The biggest driver I think is the inner urge to provide for oneself. To feel the confidence in being able to support your family no matter the circumstances.

In the end, not everyone feels it and they never will. The bottom line is whether it is worth it to you and your family. It’s a lot of work. We all know that. And maybe you get into it and find that it really is more work than you are willing to do. Maybe that call to take several cruises and travel to Europe (or America if you are already in Europe), or travel to some other destination different than your home country – maybe that urges you on. Go with that. You can always live vicariously through and support your homesteading friends by buying their products.

Producing an Income And that brings up another point. Products. Even the most self-sufficient homestead will need to sell some sort of product to buy things that cannot be produced on the farm. Clothes, paper, books, certain cleaning products, gasoline and so on. We chose to create a small business within our homestead. We don’t really need that much money, but one thing led to another and here we are. We love making cheese. And it has been worth it to us to take even longer to complete the homestead part of our dream while we build the creamery. It was only four years ago that we quit working for others and jumped in full time to live our dream. Up to that point, we were building a little bit at a time.

We built fencing, added animals, learned that growing our own hay was more than we wanted to do, added more animals. And finally, fell in love with our cows. We hit our sweet spot. If we had to do it all again, I think we would still do it in steps before making our final decision on the central theme of our homestead. Deciding to make cheese was huge of course. The cost of the infrastructure is why not many people do it. But that barrier to entry also keeps the competition to a minimum. There are always pros and cons to every choice.

Trust your instincts. Know that you can do far more than you ever thought you could. There are ups and downs. And there are joys and sorrows. I can’t tell you the sorrows of losing lots of animals. Or the sorrow of the farmer I mentioned above that was wiped out by mother nature. But we must try. We must give it our best shot. All of life is a risk. Homesteading is a risk but the inner joy is so worth it for us. Perhaps it will be worth it for you as well.

You Just Can’t Do It All The last thing I want to mention is what I talked about way back in the beginning. The passion to produce as much of what sustains you as possible. The bottom line is that you simply cannot do it all. You will start in a direction and add lots of stuff only to find out in a very real way that there are only 24 hours in a day. And if you stretch yourself too far, the joy of that homesteading life can turn into drudgery and a chore.

Here are some of the ideas we have either tried or at least talked about but have now fallen by the wayside.

The cashmere goats were brought onto the homestead to provide fiber to make yarn and knitted things. I wanted to make our clothes. Way back in the past I even had flax seeds ready to grow flax for fiber. Both of those things are full time operations. You would grow a small garden and have a few animals for yourself and the rest of your time would be spent on those projects. Would it be worth it? Perhaps it is a long-held dream for some of you. Go for it. For us, it was just another task that needed to be completed that never got done.

One project that has fallen by the wayside but may make a comeback in the future is cutting and stacking wood for the wood stove. For the past two winters, we have simply paid higher prices for electricity in the winter. Scott needed to work on the creamery. We have a wonderful wood stove that can heat our entire house in the winter and save lots on electricity. We shall see how that progresses in the future. It may be that we find someone else who is making wood cutting the center of their homestead operation and we just buy a few cords of wood from them. It will still be much cheaper than electricity.

Let’s see what else have we scrapped. My herbal tincture business. That was a fairly well-defined business. I studied for years, earned my degrees, and practiced my craft. But in the end, marketing more than one business is simply not practical. I still provide the needed herbal medicines for our family, but I no longer try to make it cost efficient. Making my own medicine from natural herbs still fulfills me. It’s great to know that I can take care of some of my medical needs. But in the end, becoming an herbalist that helps the community had to be put aside. It’s a full-time job in and of itself.

Follow Your Dream I’m sure there are other things but you get the picture. We all start out wanting to do everything. Then reality sets in and we have to pick and choose. Once the creamery is built and our cheese business is in full swing, there are other things that we still want to do that we have not yet done. So as some things fall off, others come into greater focus. We love pork and chicken but have not had the time to master these two animals. Before the creamery we did not have them because they require daily care and we were not here every day. After we came to live here every day, the creamery became the focus of our efforts.

By next year, we will be ready to start these other new adventures that compliment our cheese operation. Both the pigs and chickens will benefit from the spoilage and waste generated by the cheesemaking business.

One really great thing I have learned about the homesteading lifestyle is that there is always something new just around the corner. And more often than not, it is a joyful thing.

Final Thoughts That’s about all I have time for today. Next time I’ll have great updates on the wonderful new animal babies on the homestead. We love spring time and new life.

I hope you’ve gotten some ideas to think about as you make your journey. Whether you are already in the process or still thinking about it, keep going, keep dreaming. It’s so worth it. And if it’s not your cup of tea, come visit us and benefit from the great food that we grow for you. We’d love to chat and show you around. Not everyone will be a homesteader. You just be the best YOU that you can imagine. Keep going. Keep dreaming.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

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Fun facts about milk. Anybody up for some trivia. “Fun facts about milk” is my topic for today. We have fresh milk again and it is always a treat. There isn’t much milk at this point because Rosie is quite a small cow and it’s her first calf. I’ll talk more about that fun fact in a bit.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but spring is starting up here. We can still expect some colder days and our last frost date according to the USDA is April 15th. That’s more than a month away. Still, it is in the upper 60’s today and sunny. In short, it’s a beautiful spring day.

Reblochon Cheese Before I get into the animal updates, I want to let you know that I just made a brand new cheese that I have never made before. It is still in progress. When I finish this podcast, it will be just about time to put it in the brine solution. Brining is a common method for adding salt to cheese. I’m so excited about this cheese. It is a semi-soft, washed rind cheese. Making it to the point of getting the curds in the molds was very quick and easy. Now the hard part begins. I have never made a rind with this much complexity.

If I am successful, I will have created a creamy, buttery cheese that will ooze and melt at room temperature similar to the way that a brie or camembert will ooze out of the skin. The difference is that there isn’t that skin – and that bloomy rind, mushroomy scent and flavor. This cheese will have a much firmer rind. We shall see how it goes. It’s a new adventure.

Sheep The sheep are out there milling about looking for every new blade of grass. And there is some out there. Sheep will eat hay, but they prefer fresh grass. It’s not readily available in the winter and they persevere with the hay. But any day you will find them out there seeking at least one blade of fresh grass. Well today they are finding a bit. Granted the blades of grass are few and far between, but there is a bit here and there.

As far as lambs, these beautiful ewes have less than three weeks left before they start giving birth. We anticipate this event every single year. You just can’t not love those little lambs bouncing around, jumping straight up and down in the early evening. Praying for this year to be as good as the last. We are looking for about 6 to 8 healthy lambs.

Cows A couple of our cow girls are nearing the end of their gestation as well. We could see the next calf as early as two and a half weeks from now. In the coming days, we will begin to start walking the girls up to the milking shed every day. That reminds them of the path and what they need to do to cooperate with the process. Well, they also get a little treat while they are standing there, so that is probably their incentive as they have no care for the process. Walking them up every day also gives us the opportunity to more closely monitor their progress and general health. Any issues are easily spotted and we can respond quickly.

I don’t remember if I talked about this the last time, but we are looking at adding a couple of bred heifers or young cows that are bred and ready to deliver in April or May. That would help us out so much. We are trying to build a specific genetic makeup in all of our cows. We need the A2A2 genetics for our fresh milk herd share members. If you are not familiar with A2A2 milk, I did a podcast on the topic called “What is A2A2 Milk? You’ll find it on our website.

We also need the genetic trait for BB Kappa casein for making cheese. We have lots of A2A2 cows but we are missing the BB kappa casein trait. I believe the only one who has that genetic trait is also not A2A2. As we move forward, there will be significant changes in our herd. It will take the next five years or so for us to reach our goal of 100% A2A2 and 100% BB kappa casein.

Quail I’m saving eggs to put in the incubator. I think I mentioned that we are giving the quail one more year to pay for themselves. So far so good. I actually have new customers that are buying the quail meat. That helps a lot. The eggs sell fairly well, but there is little profit in eggs. Just sayin . . .

Today I got the incubator down out of the storage area above the creamery. Tomorrow or the next day I will crank it up and the process of hatching those cute little quail babies will begin again.

Garden Preparing the garden for spring is now on the agenda. There is quite a bit to do out there and these wonderful spring days are just the time to do it. I think beginning the tasks will be delayed a few days due to another project I will talk about in a moment.

Did I mention that I have 500 bare root strawberry plants coming soon? That’s right 500 strawberry plants. Scott loves jam in his yogurt and I’ve been out of strawberry jam for over a year. This year I plan to remedy that problem. And I’ll have some yummy jam for you guys as well.

I have lots of tomato plant starts already sprouting. Also, the basil and thyme are sprouting. It’s so good to be growing stuff again. I have five different herbs, two tomato varieties and eight varieties of pepper plants that I’ve got seeded. Again, only the tomatoes and a couple of herbs have sprouted so far. But I’m actually amazed that those seeds sprouted so quickly. I’ve never seen any of my seeds sprout before 6 or 7 days. These came up in 3 days. Something is going on right now in my growing area this year.

I have an amaryllis – actually there are three in that pot. They are all over 13 years old. They have moved with me a couple of times and have nearly died a couple of times. For the first time in 13 years, one of them bloomed. And she bloomed big. There were three primary blossoms and one that was a little late in coming out. That one is the only one left of the four.

I watched that stalk grow for days and days and days. Then as it started to open, I realized that it had been so long that I had no idea what color the bloom would be. I thought for sure it would be a deep red. Nope. It was white. At this point I’m thinking that the bulbs might be even more than 13 years old as I’m pretty sure that the last one I bought was red. Well, we shall see if any of the others bloom in the future.

Bees A short note on the bees. I don’t talk about them much. We don’t give them a lot of attention. We have never robbed the honey. For quite a few years they have simply gone on with their business of keeping up their hive all on their own. However, it’s not looking good this time. We don’t know for sure yet, but we may have lost the hive this winter. It was a particularly long and cold winter and they may have not survived. We shall see. It was plenty warm enough today for them to be out and about. There are always a few guarding the door. There was nothing when I went out a little while ago. But maybe it is still too cold inside there. I’ll be very sad if we lose our bees. They pollinate our orchard trees and vegetable garden.

Creamery On a much happier note, the stairs to the storage area above the kitchen and creamery are currently under construction. What a blessing that will be when it is complete. It was quite the ordeal getting stuff up there. Scott attached a palette to the front forks on the tractor. We loaded it up with stuff and lifted the palette up to the door. A really, really, tall ladder was placed at the other door over the barn. Scott went in that door and came through the storage area to the door over the kitchen and creamery and started unloading the stuff off of the palette. It was a little disturbing seeing him stand on that palette while it was suspended in the air. But it held up just fine.

Getting stuff back down got a little easier a few days ago as Scott set up the scaffolding just under the door. A ladder to the scaffold and another ladder to the door made getting stuff down easier than getting it up there. However, the stairs will make it perfect.

Fun Facts About Milk Let’s talk about milk. Let’s talk about fun facts about milk. The first thing is following up on what I said a little bit ago about Rosie being small and this being her first calf. Even had she been two years old which is the youngest target age of any cow to have her first calf, she still would not have reached her full size.

Amount of Milk All cows generally have a bit of growing to do even after having their first calf. They produce significantly less milk with that first calf because their udder is still smaller than it will be when they reach their full height and size. So, when you are planning your milk needs, keep that in mind. The first year, she will produce perhaps 25% less milk than in her second and subsequent years. The amount of milk produced by her with her second calf is much more of an indication of how much milk she will produce on a regular basis.

A huge factor for us regarding how much milk we can expect to be able to use is that the calves need to get their share. Any milk cow will produce far more milk than a calf needs, but that doesn’t stop the calf from trying to drink absolutely as much as they can when given the chance. Every homestead and small dairy will have to manage how much milk the calves get.

Think about beef cattle. They nurse their calves as well but they don’t produce near as much milk. I think I read that beef cows produce about 1½ gallons of milk per day. A dairy cow is going to produce three to six gallons per day. Unless they are Holsteins and those cows are pushed to the limit producing 10 to 20 gallons per day. Anyway, we feed our calves 1 gallon of milk per day to start and then bump that up to 2 gallons per day as they get a little bigger.

Planning Milk Distribution We do separate our calves from the moms and then bottle feed them. It is a rough three days but then everyone adjusts and all are happy and content once again. Another method that we may try at some point is separating the calves from their moms overnight. We milk in the morning and then the calves get everything else after that. I’m hesitant to try that method as it is important for the cows to be milked out completely twice a day for the proper balance in the milk for cheesemaking. I won’t go into the scientific details, but making cheese is best done with a real consistency in the milk. These are all choices you make when you choose the homestead or small dairy lifestyle.

I hope to help educate also that anthropomorphizing cows is not useful. They do not have anything remotely like human thoughts and emotions. In know we tend to feel for them as if they were human but they are not. The separating of the calf from the cow does not cause any lasting damage to the psyche of either the cow or the calf. It just doesn’t. Man was created to have dominion over the animals and plants and the land. We must care for our plants, animals and their living environment. We must be kind to them. We must nurture them. But in the end, plants, animals and the environment are not human and human emotions are not applicable.

That is a little bit of a deviation from the topic, but it is an important point to make. Often, I let my emotions get in the way and I feel bad for the animals on their behalf. In the end, it’s a useless pursuit. My method for dealing with this tendency is to allow myself to acknowledge it, feel it and then grasp the reality of it. Removing a calf from its mother does not leave the same kind of deep and perpetual emotional scar for the cow and calf that losing a human child produces in us human beings. It just doesn’t. Okay, moving on from that topic.

Amount of milk – the curve When a cow comes into milk, there is a production curve that is pretty consistent. There are four phases in a milking cow’s cycle. There is an early, mid and late lactation period and then there is the dry period. In the early part of the cycle, her milk production will increase, reaching its peak in 60 days or so. Then the milk production begins to drop off ending up just about where it started. Then we “dry” them up. Basically. we systematically stop milking the cow and she produces less and less milk. We don’t use this milk for making cheese. It can cause some really strange things to occur in an otherwise stable cheesemaking plan.

Amount of Cream The amount of cream will change during the lactation cycle. I tried to get some reliable information on the cycle of cream and could not find any. I surmise the reason is the same reason that standardization was instituted and now no one even thinks about it. Milk was standardized to have a specific amount of cream content.

Standardized whole milk in the grocery is 3.5% milk fat. The milk is homogenized and that process keeps the cream suspended in the milk. In fresh milk from your cow, the cream will rise to the top and separate from the milk. You can see the exact place in the jar where the cream stops and the milk begins. This is known as the “cream line”. It goes up and down during the lactation cycle. Mom can control cream somewhat and even hold some back for her calf. Nutrition will affect the amount of cream but the biggest factor in determining how much cream your fresh milk has is the breed of animal you are milking.

Before standardization, customers were getting varying cream lines in their delivered to their door. I’m actually old enough to remember the milk truck coming at 4:30 or so in the morning and delivering fresh milk to the door. We lived in Michigan and, in the winter, if you didn’t get up and get the milk, it would freeze and break the glass jars. This happened at least once in my childhood. Anyway, to promote customer satisfaction, standards were introduced to ensure that everyone got their fair share of cream. Homogenization removed the cream line from memory and it has become a distant memory.

Normande and Jersey Cow Cream Jersey cows are a favorite in lots of small dairies and homestead settings. They have a very deep cream line, far exceeding that 3.5% fat content on your store-bought, pasteurized, homogenized milk. I’ve seen our Normande cows produce a cream line that was about 2 cups out of an 8-cup half-gallon mason jar. Even for the jersey and our Normandes, sometimes there is more cream and sometimes less. But there will always be more cream in the jar of milk from our Normande and Jersey cows than any Holstein cow. Holsteins are the black and white cows we associate with milk these days. It seems that every picture of a milk cow is one of the black and white Holstein variety.

Perhaps some of you are as old as me and remember Elsie the cow. She was the cartoon brand image for Borden from the 1930s all the way up to the 1990s when Borden was bought by JM Smucker Company and the milk was rebranded, Eagle Brand. Elsie was a brown cow. When they decided to have a live “Elsie” appear at the world’s fair in 1939, the cow chosen was from a Jersey herd. She even had horns just like the picture. You don’t see many modern pictures of milk cows with horns. They do still exist all over the place – Holsteins, Jerseys and our Normandes all can have horns. It’s all about branding. Holstein cows produce the majority of milk in the United States and the pictures of milk cows reflect that change. But I still love Elsie.

Flavors in Milk Throughout the Lactation Cycle The last fun fact about milk that I want to bring up is the unique tastes that pastured dairy cows bring to their milk. I can always taste the grass in fresh milk from our cows. Well, not so much right now as they are eating hay. But when the grass comes in, there can be a definite “grassy” taste to the milk. It is very refreshing in the spring when we are starved for green things. I really, really crave salad this time of year. It’s the only time of year that I crave salad. I’m not a big salad eater. But late winter brings out that craving in my body for fresh green things.

Another fun thing that grows in the spring that cows love to eat is wild onions. We actually have some growing out there right now. Our property does not have a lot of wild onions and I am thankful for that. Unlike the grassy taste, the onion taste simply does not go well with milk in my opinion. However, it does make an interesting cheese. So, there is that.

The grasses that cows eat change throughout the year. There are spring grasses, summer grasses and fall grasses. Then there is dried grass or hay in the winter. Each of these types of grass affect the taste of our fresh milk and our handmade cheeses. The milk you get in the grocery store doesn’t have that wonderful bouquet of aromas and flavors as those cows are fed a very regulated grain diet. They don’t get to eat grass. Nope. They eat various grains and what is called silage. All of this produces a specific milk flavor that is consistent. There are no seasonal changes in the taste of the milk. And then there is that distinct cooked flavor of pasteurized milk. If that is all you drink, you will never notice it. However, if you drink fresh milk for a period of time and then take a sip of store-bought pasteurized milk, you will definitely notice the difference.

Final Thoughts Well, that is it for today’s podcast. We are eagerly anticipating the spring birthing of plants and animals. It is a wonderful time of year. My favorite time of year is spring. I know, I know. We are still 10 days away from spring. But I’m there. I’m so ready.

Let me know if you enjoyed the milk trivia. And drop me a line if you have questions or if I can answer any other questions for you about milk, cheese or any other dairy product.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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Have you considered flavored cheese in your home cheesemaking operation? Likely most of you are not making your own cheese. You’ll want to seek out some flavored cheeses from your local markets for a real treat. There are so many possibilities here that I couldn’t possibly cover them all in this short podcast. Today, I’ll give you just a brief overview of what you might consider in tasting and in creating with your cheeses.

Welcome new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m going to start off with what’s going on at the homestead and then I’ll get right into talking about some tasty flavored cheese.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I want to start off with talking about our herd share program. We are opening up our raw milk cheese herd shares to more people. One full share will provide you and your family with about two pounds of our hand-made, aged, raw milk cheese per month. A half share will provide about one pound of cheese per month. We have four varieties from which to choose.

Our Peaceful Heart Gold is a danish Havarti-style cheese. It is a washed curd cheese that is soft, buttery and the sweetest cheese we make. Moving from the mildest to the sharpest, the next in line is our Ararat Legend. This is also a washed rind cheese made in the Dutch gouda tradition. It is a firmer cheese than the Gold with nearly as much butter flavor. This cheese ages well and the flavor deepens with each passing month. The next two kind of tie for sharpest, depending on how long they have aged. We have a wonderful aged cheddar and an alpine-style cheese we call Pinnacle. The flavor complexities of these two cheeses are amazing as neither is even ready to taste until 9 months or more of aging. Well, we do offer the milder cheddar at three and six months, but you will definitely want to wait for the good stuff.

Details and costs can be found on our website at Peaceful Heart Farm dot com. Product pickup is available at the Wytheville Farmer’s market, the Independence Farmer’s market and from our homestead. Support us or some other local farm. Keep good food alive. Give us a call and we can get you set up.

Cows We are on calf watch with Rosie. This event is happening far ahead of our expectations. Her udder is developing and filling with milk. It may be only a matter of days. You never really know, any more than you know for humans, when the exact date will be for the event. She is looking good and Scott and I are feeling pretty good about Rosie and her calf. We are still cautious and watching her very closely, but again, she looks really good right now. Buttercup is doing a good job of keeping Rosie company. She is our only cow that is not going to have a calf this year.

After Rosie, next up for giving birth is Cloud followed closely by Claire. Butter and Violet are much further down the line, due in May and June respectively. And as I said, Buttercup is not having a calf this year. If all goes well, we will end up with five calves this year. Praying for some heifers.

Goats and Sheep The sheep are doing well. Their expected delivery date is the 27th of March, so about a month more for them. We are likely to have six to eight lambs this year.

The goats have been reduced to five. Yes, finally I got moving on reducing our goat population. We are moving more rapidly toward changing over to meat goats. If you are new, we currently have cashmere goats. I had this grandiose idea that I was going to have time to gather their cashmere, have it made into yarn, and knit up some wonderful cashmere items. It took a few years for me to realize that I was not going to have time to include yet another enterprise into our business model. By that time, we had well over twenty goats.

Now these wonderful animals are great at keeping the pastures cleared of brush, briars and small pine trees. So, we definitely want to keep a few of them around. However, it makes much more sense for our homestead to have meat goats. That way they can keep the pastures pristine and also provide more nourishment for our family. Later this fall we will process the final five goats. At that point we will be in the market for a small herd of meat goats. Right now, I am focused on Kiko goats but would probably consider Spanish goats.

Quail A few days ago, Scott and I went over the costs of raising these great birds. It’s pretty expensive according to my year-end profit and loss statement. My first, knee-jerk reaction was to just stop raising quail. However, after waiting a couple of days, I decided to break down the actual cost and how much we are benefiting from the eggs and meat.

Back in 2006, Scott raised just short of 150 chickens in the Joel Salatin-type chicken tractors. He calculated that it cost a little over $1 per pound to raise those chickens. Our cost to raise quail is somewhere between $5.50 and $6.50 per pound of bird. However, there are also the eggs to consider. Scott and I sat down and tried to come up with a better comparison. If we had to buy eggs, what would be our cost? Subtract that from the total costs, based on four quail eggs per one chicken egg, and the rest of the cost divided by the approximate weight of the birds raised for meat. The bottom line is that we decided to give the quail one more season to prove their worth. I also decided to feed them a little bit less. They did seem to be putting on quite a bit of unnecessary fat so this seemed the first place to cut a little cost. We shall see what happens this year. I’m going to keep better records.

I’m still anticipating when we will be able to build our chicken facilities. It won’t be this year. The quail get a well-deserved reprieve.

Garden I just received a couple of rolls of woven fabric ground cloth. Yes, we are about to get started on the garden. The biggest change this year will be the strawberry bed. I’ve order 500 bare-root strawberry plants. Yes, you heard that right. I ordered 500 plants. We are pretty much starting from scratch with our strawberries. I’m excited about this new opportunity.

I’m also going to start some plants for sale at the farmer’s market. If you are in my neighborhood, I should have some herbs, tomatoes and perhaps some green pepper starts ready for your garden. I’m not going to grow very many tomatoes or peppers this year but I really love growing plants. Growing for you guys seemed to be the best way to fulfil that desire to grow stuff. And I chose to grow some culinary herbs, because they are sometimes harder to find. I’ll keep you posted on which herbs I was successful in sprouting.

Flavored Cheese Today want to talk a little bit about flavored cheese. If you’re making your own cheese at home, this could be a great adventure for you. On the other hand, if you’re just a real cheese head and love to try new cheeses, you might take a look at some of the cheeses available that have had either spices and seeds added or maybe they have herbs added, and some have been created using ale wine and/or spirits. You may even be able to find a cheese wrapped in leaves. These are just a few of the methods used to add various flavors to cheese. In this short podcast, I’ll be briefly touching on those flavorings that I just mentioned. There are others, but I’ll stick with these for today.

Seeds and Spices The first flavoring I want to mention is seeds and spices. Your first thought when considering what seeds and spices to add should be the quality. You don’t want to use three-year-old dried herbs from your cabinet. Next, think of what you like. Now temper that with the thought that sometimes there’s a good reason that you haven’t seen that kind of cheese made. However, don’t let that thought stop you from experimenting. Sometimes it could be as simple as it not being economical to produce such a cheese on a commercial basis. If you’re making it in your own kitchen, the costs are much less of a factor. If you’re concerned at all, simply start with a combination that you’ve seen or tasted.

There are two things that you want to consider when preparing your experiment. Getting the right distribution and the size of the seed. I’ve seen lots of cheeses use whole peppercorns. Those are pretty big seeds so you would use less. On the other hand, if you have a small seed such as Caraway, you don’t want to put so many in there that you ruin the texture of the cheese. For a cheese maybe 2 gallons of milk, you are likely going to choose one to 3 teaspoons of your chosen seed or spice.

When you’re preparing your seeds and spices for addition to the cheese curd, you might consider boiling them for 5 to 10 minutes. There are couple reasons you might want to try that. If you suspect any kind of contamination or you want to soften a seed so that the flavors are more readily incorporated into the cheese.

Adding your seeds or spices can happen in a couple of different ways. Almost universally, the whey needs to have been drained. You don’t want to lose your spice with the whey. One of the easiest methods is to simply stir your seeds and/or spices into the drained cards. Another fun way would be to layer it in the mold. Put little curd in, add your spices, put more curd, add spices again and so on. You want to be careful with that method. There is always a chance that you will bunch your spices up too closely together and over spice one area while another would be under served. You may even have trouble getting the cheese to get together properly. The trade-off is the visual effect of layers.

Here are some of the most popular seeds and spices used in this method flavoring your cheese. I’ve already mentioned caraway seed and peppercorns. Other seeds might be mustard, fennel, fenugreek, or cumin. Some useful spices include cloves and red pepper flakes. Generally, you want to stay away from using herbs for aged varieties of flavored cheese. They will be prone to breakdown and change the color of your cheese. That’s not a good look. Herbs are most often used either mixed into a soft cheese or spread. Or lots of times you’ll see them used as a coating on the outside of a fresh, soft cheese.

Ale, Wine, and Spirits This is a great way to create a flavored cheese. And ale or beer can be incorporated directly into the cheese curd in the same way that the seeds and spices were added. Wine and spirits on the other hand, work better on the outside. This is most commonly done in washed rind cheeses. I briefly mentioned wrapping a cheese in leaves. Using alcohol to macerate the leaves, that is to soak them for a period of time, prior to wrapping the cheese is a favored practice.

Adding beer or ale, similar to adding seeds, happens after the whey has been drained. When making cheddar, it can be added after the cheddaring process has been completed and the curds have been milled. Otherwise, simply stir into the curds after they have been drained. You don’t need much. I also think it would be hard to use too much. Whether you pour the whole bottle into the curds made from your 2 gallons of milk, or you use only a half cup for your cheese and save the rest for yourself, that’s up to you. I’ll use a whole bottle for 15 or 20 gallons of milk. But again, I don’t think you can use too much.

There are several things to consider when deciding to use wine or spirits on your washed rind cheese. Because you’re adding wetness to the outside of your cheese, you can be prepared for softening. Sometimes, for a softer cheese, you might let your cheese dry for 2 to 3 days. Then begin the wash. Or, for a harder, drier cheese such as an alpine style, you can begin the wash right away. Something else to consider would be experimenting with the frequency of washing and the humidity in your aging room. The hardness of the rind and the texture of the cheese will also influence what your final results are going to be with the washing. Obviously, the softer rind is going to absorb more of the flavors.

Wrapping Your Cheese with Leaves Many flavored cheeses utilize some type of leaf wrapping. Sometimes the leaves are dry, but more often they have been macerated in a strong alcohol, such as brandy or bourbon. This is a wide-open field. Choose your favorite spirit, and parent with your favorite leaf. Some leaves to consider are chestnut, maple, or grape.

Not all leaf-wrapped cheeses use spirits. Nettle, sycamore, or walnut are good choices here. Like with the herbs, you don’t want them to break down and become mush.

I hope you enjoy your experiments whether in making the cheese or trying out a new cheese from your local market.

Final Thoughts I hope you’ll give some thought to becoming part of our herd share program. We’d love to be of service to you. Come on out to the homestead and see where it all happens. Say hello to Claire and the rest of the girls. Pet the donkeys. Be sure to wear rugged shoes and/or boots. Animals are messy creatures and if it has rained, omg, the mud.

I hope I’ve titillated your senses a little and you’re on your way to trying some new flavored cheese. Whether you’re making it from scratch or buying from your local market, your enjoyment is sure to be mooua, superb.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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Prepare for disaster is a motto I grew up with living in rural Michigan. Back in the day, when the power went off due to a winter storm, it could be off for several weeks. Today we have much better electrical systems and our current provider has kept us in good shape. We have never been without power for more than a few days. But even that can be disastrous if we are not prepared. Today I want to talk about how we prepare for disasters that may or may not happen.

First, let me take a moment to say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I appreciate you all so much and I couldn’t do it without you. It’s midwinter and life goes on here at the homestead.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates The cold weather has been consistent for weeks. Not too cold, getting just below freezing at night and 40s and sometimes 50s during the day. This is a typical Southwestern Virginia winter. I look for a few days of freezing weather sometime in the near future. A typical winter will have at least four or five days when the temperatures drop all the way to the teens and occasionally single digits overnight. That four or five day stretch usually happens at least once and sometimes twice, usually in January. It hasn’t happened yet. Still waiting for that shoe to drop. We did have some unseasonably cold weather in December, but January is proceeding right long the normal line.

Cows The cows are handling the cold weather as they always do. It amazes me that these animals can go through the winter without seeming to notice it too much. I go out there and the cows are moseying around, eating grass and/or hay looking like they don’t have a care in the world. If they are eating, they are laying down, relaxing and chewing their cud, again, like they haven’t got a care in the world. Personally, I don’t handle cold very well, but I’m so glad they do.

Donkeys The donkeys handle the cold very well also. Their coats are full and thick. Just about everyday they come up to the milking shed looking for a treat. Scott or I will give them a small handful of sweet feed and a petting. When they are finished, they head on down to the creek and out to pasture with everybody else. Our donkeys are the friendliest animals on the homestead.

Sheep and Goats The sheep and goats always prepare for disaster in winter. They have really thick coats. Our goats are cashmere goats. They have a really thick undercoat of cashmere that they shed in the spring. Our sheep are hair sheep which means they also grow a thick coat of wool and shed it in the spring. No shearing for these sheep. I was watching the ewes graze in the front pasture. Just like the cows, not a care in the world.

Quail The quail are even more amazing to me. They have feathers and I can’t see that they have any extra feathers for winter. Whatever they have is what they have and that’s it. My ladies and gents have it better than they would out in the wild. There is a box shelter where they can get completely out of the wind. They can huddle together for added warmth. Sometimes I go out there and they are kind of fluffed up, but other than that, not a shiver. Nature is amazing.

Garden This time of year is the time to plan for the spring garden. What plants will we grow? How many? What will be rotated to another location? And so on. I’m a bit behind on getting started with that but I just can’t seem to drum up the energy. It’s too cold and I don’t want to think about going out in the garden when it is cold. Anyway, I’ll get to it in the next couple of weeks.

Creamery The creamery roof is nearly complete. Scott is putting the finishing touches on the peaks. He spent much of the day yesterday rigging up a way to safely move around up there. Today he is full steam ahead getting those ridge caps completed.

Still to come is all of the ends of the building above the ground floor. I think they are called dormer walls or something like that. It’s basically the area from the top of the block building to the peak of the roof. All of that will be covered in the same metal as with the roof.

It’s cold out there every day. And every day Scott is out there working in it. He doesn’t mind the cold and he prepares for it with layers of clothes.

Preparing for Disaster Speaking of being prepared, let me get into how we prepare for disaster. Some of it anyway. I could probably talk all day long about how we created and executed our plan. Some of it is still in progress.

No matter where you are in the world, there is always something you can do to prepare for disaster. You simply never know when power is going to be out or something disrupts the flow of goods. For instance, I got caught short this summer because there was a shortage of canning jars and lids. In the end, I did have enough for what I needed to save our harvests, but it was touch and go sometimes. Recently I came across canning jars while in town and I purchased just about everything they had on the shelf. Still no lids but I got a better stock of jars than I have had in the past. We learn from our mistakes.

Let’s start at the beginning. The first thing to stock up on is water.

Water You should always have water on hand or access to clean water. Making this happen doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Today, we have a hand pump connected to our well so we can always get water when needed whether we have power to the well pump or not. Still, we keep water on hand in the house. While it’s easy to go out there and hand pump some water, it is still easier to reach back in a closet or go into the spare bathroom and get some water for cooking, cleaning and flushing.

The recommended amount of water you will want to store is 7.5 gallons of water per person per month. A family of four would have 15 gallons of water stored if preparing for a short-term disaster lasting a few days or weeks. That’s where you always start. How much do I need for 2 to 4 weeks? Then get it done. You have the blue 5-gallon containers at Lowe’s, Home Depot, the grocery, and so on. Invest in a few of those and you are good to go. Strapped for cash? Buy one a week or even one a month. Your stored water will need to be refreshed regularly. Either use it or pour it out, but replaced what you have stored in the containers every 6 months or so. You don’t have to get there all at once. But you do want to get your water situated first.

Food The second item is food. This one is a little trickier and takes quite a bit more time. So, start now. There are many methods for building up your food stores. Set several goals with this one.

How Many Days to Prepare for Disaster? First, how many days of food do you need to store? That depends. Start with a week, then go to a month, then three months and so on. Ideally, you get to a place where you have a full year’s worth of food stored for your entire family. That may seem like a lot and it actually is a lot. But for my peace of mind, I wanted a full year of food. You may make your cutoff date sooner – and some even plan for longer.

What Food Should Be Stored? Second, don’t store anything your family won’t eat. What are you eating right now? That’s what you want to stock up on. Forget the MRE’s and whatever else might sound great or someone might try to sell to prepare for disaster. What you want is food that your family regularly eats. Most foods have a shelf life of at least a year. If you rotate what you have saved, using the oldest stuff first and adding back what you have used in the back of the shelf, you can come up with a system that keeps you stocked up at all times. This is the first in, first out method. Instead of having one box of cereal, you have 12, or whatever you determine is the right number. Buy an extra box or two whenever you shop, or whatever you can afford. Build up slowly. You’ll be there before you know it.

Bulk Foods One of the best ideas for food is to store some products in bulk containers. I’m talking about beans, rice, sugar and wheat or flour. You can live a long time on beans and rice. And if you are into making your own bread, having wheat or flour on hand at all times is a great idea. This is another place to build slowly.

The pieces you need to do this part effectively are: 5-to-6-gallon food-grade plastic buckets, mylar bags, oxygen absorbers and a standard household iron. The mylar bag goes in the bucket. The beans, rice, wheat, or flour go in the bag. Toss in a couple of oxygen absorbers and seal the bag with your iron. The oxygen absorber will suck out all the oxygen in the bag, And the sealed bag without oxygen will keep the food fresh for up to 30 years. I said 5 or 6-gallon buckets, but you can use smaller buckets. I like the larger buckets because I can buy 40 or 50 pounds of beans or rice and it fits in the larger bucket.

Canned Goods Let’s talk about canned goods. These can also last for a very long time – not so much as the beans and rice, but still a long while. Those “use-by” dates on the can are not expiration dates. They are CYA dates for the manufacturers. As long as the can is not damaged and the seal is in place, canned food in jars and metal cans will last for years. Food in jars needs to be kept out of the light. And all canned foods need to be kept at room temperature or lower. Keep that in mind when you are planning where to store your stuff. Strapped for space? Under the bed works pretty well. Use that cabinet space up high that is empty because you can’t reach it easily. Find used shelving at yard sales and put it up in your garage. Lots of ways to make the space you need.

And don’t forget the can opener. Not one of those electric ones. No! a hand-operated can opener is needed.

Self-Protection I’m not going to talk about this one because I’m not educated enough to know what to say. We do have weapons and ammo and such but Scott handles all of that. I’ll just mention it here and say find someone who knows what they are talking about with this and follow their podcasts or YouTube videos. It’s definitely important. And don’t forget to get the proper training. It’s no good to have weapons you don’t know how to use safely and care for properly.

Energy Needs This is the last piece I’m going to touch on today. There is so much to cover on this topic I couldn’t possibly do it justice. So, I’m just going to give you a bit of information to get you started. Every person’s situation is different and your energy needs are going to be different.

Gasoline Keep extra gasoline on hand. That’s an easy one. We try to keep 12 containers at all times. I must say, we are not as efficient at this as could be desired. If you have 12 containers of gasoline labeled one each month, rotate through that stock at a particular date in the month. In other words, in January, you empty the container labeled “January” into one of your car gas tanks. Pick a day of the month that you do this. The first, 15th or last day of the month are good choices. Take the empty container and refill it. That newly filled container won’t be emptied for a year and it will require a fuel stabilizer to keep it fresh and usable.

Generator Having a generator that has enough power to run your refrigerator and freezer is a great tool. Again, add these things as you can afford them. Get your food stores up to a couple of weeks at least before moving on to a generator. Your generator will need to be started once a month to keep it in tip-top shape and so you know it is in good working order. You don’t want to be without power and find out that your generator is no longer working.

Living off the Grid You may decide to go completely off the grid – or at least be prepared to go completely off the grid. That takes a great deal of planning and the choices are endless so I’m not going to go into that topic. But I will say keep in mind that, while solar sounds really good, if you don’t live in a really, really sunny place it may not be the option for you. There are other options.

Having a wood burning stove is always good. At the very least you can use your gas grill to cook meals – if you have planned ahead and have an extra propane tank or two. We took out our electric stove and put in a gas stove. The oven won’t work but the surface burners can be lit with a match. Keep some of those on hand. I like using what I’m used to using for cooking, so this works for me. We have the wood burning stove as well – complete with an oven. I really should learn how to cook on that thing in the event we run out of propane.

Communication This is the toughest one to get prepared for in my opinion. How do we communicate? As long as the cell towers are up and running and your phone battery is charged, we can communicate. Well, we would have to climb way up to the top of our property and then maybe, just maybe, we would get a cell signal.

Right now, we have all sorts of social media where we can find out what is going on with family, friends and co-workers. But what if you didn’t have that? How would you get in touch with people? Could you get in touch with people? This topic requires some deep thought, lots of planning, and practice sessions to make sure your plans work. You don’t want to be isolated.

There is a significant amount of banning of communication going on in the large tech communities. They have a great deal of power. Indeed, more power than the US government. They can turn off anyone with the push of a button. They can make you disappear. You might want to consider broadening your reach to smaller platforms if you can find one that works for you and your family.

I have created a page on a site called Locals. You can find me on locals by searching for peaceful heart farm. Once you’ve joined my community, you can post whatever you’d like on my page. We can have a conversation and share insights.

I think I’m going to end there.

Final Thoughts The animals go on and on and don’t give a thought to whether there is power to heat the house. And as long as the grass and hay keep coming, they are good to go. For us, it’s more complicated. As I said, I don’t like being cold. I’m grateful for our wood burning stove. It saves on electricity in the winter and is quite useful in a pinch for cooking.

I’ve spent years gathering food, both for ourselves and now saving up in case our neighbors are not prepared or not financially able to make it happen. And our water supply will also help out – and indeed has – helped out our neighbors. There is so much more to prepare for disaster but these two pieces are key. Water and food. Start today. You just have no idea when the power lines are going to go down with a winter storm, a hurricane, tornado and so on. It may be only a couple of days but it very well could be weeks. Remember hurricane Sandy and what a disaster that was and not so long ago.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

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Let’s get back to the quail and pickled quail eggs. So much has happened. Many changes since the last time I talked about them. Ten jars of pickled quail eggs that have been completed. And so much more to talk about, especially the creamery roof.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates It’s getting close to Christmas. Hope you all are ready. Scott and I have been watching the YouTube series called “The Chosen”. I highly recommend it. The story so far is about Jesus’ adult life, not his birth. It’s still great watching for Christmas time IMO. A second season is currently in the works. I believe filming is scheduled to be completed in February 2021. I don’t know a release date, but I’m eagerly anticipating its release.

Quail On to the quail updates on the homestead.

Last time I talked about our beautiful Japanese Coturnix quail we were having issues with hens getting beat up really bad. We rescued a bunch of them and put them in quarantine away from the others. One rooster was also in quarantine. Each and every one of them healed up just fine. The only problem is that we couldn’t put them back in their various cages lest the same thing happen all over again. So, they were slated for culling.

An additional blessing and/or problem was we were getting 29 or 30 eggs every day. That’s a bit too many. Who knew that we would be so successful in getting them to lay throughout the winter? Last year we had zero, zip, nada for eggs throughout the entire winter. Then one day in late March, they all started laying again as if on cue. Getting 30 eggs at a time was a giant blessing. The more eggs we get from our quail, the less eggs we have to purchase elsewhere.

Culling Hens Before I get on to the pickled quail eggs, I need to talk a little bit more about culling the hens. When you live the homestead life, there are certain choices that need to be made that are not always easy. I love our quail. The eggs they lay are so cute and beautifully colored. However, we have to face facts and only keep what we need. And we need to give them the best life. We ended up reducing our quail population by 12 birds – well actually 13 but I will get to the additional bird in a moment. We had 6 in quarantine. Originally, there were five hens and one rooster in the bottom cages. In the lower cage on the right, we were missing a hen, the white one. All of the groups have 1 rooster to 5 hens. With my new experience, I realized I could not add another hen to the cage because she would just get beat up by the others as they vied for dominance and so we simply took all of the remaining hens out of there. That was four more. The cage on the bottom left had only one hen and a rooster in it. The other four hens from that cage were in quarantine. We took that last hen and added her to the group to be culled. Now we have 11. The end result is two cages on the bottom, one left and one right, that have a rooster and no hens.

In the penthouse was an interesting situation in that there were originally 10 hens and 2 roosters on each side – or so we thought. On the right side is where the rooster in quarantine came from so there was only one rooster there now and 10 hens. We took the five extra hens without a rooster buddy from the penthouse right side and put them in the lower cage with the lone rooster on the right. It made sense that these hens had been raised together and would therefore live in relative harmony together with their new rooster friend. They did to a point. More on that in a minute.

Miscalculations In the penthouse on the left side was supposed to be 2 roosters and 10 hens. The only problem was that I kept getting 11 eggs from there. That’s right. I got 11 eggs from 10 hens. After closer inspection it became clear that I had misidentified one of the hens as a rooster. No problem. I needed five hens to be moved to the lower cage on the left. That left six hens and a rooster in the left penthouse. I snagged one of the hens at random and added her to the cull group. Now there were 12 in the cull group and each cage had 1 rooster and 5 hens. It seemed perfect.

More Rearranging We processed all of the culled birds immediately and I had them in cold water overnight. There are enzymes produced in that first 24 hours or so that help tenderize the meat. Once that process is complete, I usually package them and then freeze them in packages of four birds. However, these 12 were slated for dinner and leftovers and they got an extra day in the frig. The very next day after doing all this culling and rearranging of hens, I went out to feed and water them and found another hen with a slightly bloody head. It wasn’t bad but she had definitely been abused. This time I grabbed the rooster and immediately quarantined him. It had to be him. The girls were getting along fine before and now the bloody head again. The only change was putting them in with the rooster. Sure enough, the next day, her head was much better and there were no other injuries. She healed up within three days and still no other injuries. As soon as I saw that she was going to heal up without the rooster in there, he got added to the dinner pot. And that is how it ended up being 13 instead of 12. We still have a few leftovers in the frig. Maybe dinner tonight.

Not Perfect But It Will Work So now, one cage has five hens with no rooster. All five still lay eggs like clockwork. I just won’t be able to use those infertile eggs in the incubator.

The final note with the quail is that yesterday, I went out to feed them and found one of the hens in the penthouse on the right had died. There were five eggs in there, so she laid her daily egg before expiring. This happens sometimes. There was no mark on her externally, but she had blood just inside her beak. Something internal went wrong. I have no idea what. One cage has a rooster and four hens instead of five. That reduces our total hens to 24. That’s two dozen eggs each day. Hope the rest of them fair well through the rest of the winter. We will have to cull a few more to make room for new babies in the spring. But until then, lots of eggs. And some of them will be made into pickled eggs.

Pickled Quail Eggs I boiled 100 quail eggs and made 10 jars (1/2 pint) of pickled quail eggs. The boiled eggs were submerged in vinegar. This did two things. First, the spots lifted off and floated to the surface of the liquid. Second, the shells, now white, became soft and rubbery overnight. Peeling them was a matter of pinching the soft shell and peeling the rubber-like shell. It was so easy. Who knew peeling eggs could be so easy.

I used three different pickling recipes. The basic pickling solution was similar in all of them. Two cups vinegar and one cup water and two to four tablespoons of sugar depending on the recipe. The salt varied a little too. This solution was enough for three jars plus a little. I made three jars of pickled quail eggs with this solution and added curry seasoning. There were three jars of pickled quail eggs with the vinegar solution, a pickling spice mix and ½ a beet. Those are a beautiful pink egg now. Then I did four jars of pickled quail eggs using apple cider vinegar in the mix instead of white vinegar and I added some minced garlic. I used the same pickling spice mix as the previous one. Unfortunately, none of them have been tasted yet. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

In the end, I have canned 10 jars of pickled quail eggs with plans for quite a few more over the winter. It will be a fine snack throughout the next year.

Apple Pie Jam Speaking of canning, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my apple pie jam. It’s pretty simple and out of this world delicious. The other day while out picking up some quail feed I ordered from a local supplier, I bought another bushel of apples. The previous bushel made lots of apple pie filling and a bit of apple pie jam. And there they were apples galore right out there for me to pick up. This year was the first time I had made the apple pie jam and it was a hit. Basically, it’s an apple jam recipe with pie spices added. It is unbelievably good. It has ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice. A bushel of apples ended up making another 40 pint jars of apple pie jam.

Perhaps I went a little overboard with making this jam, but it was really fun. I have some ½ pints that I’m selling at the farmer’s market, and will likely sell some of the pint jars as well. There will still be plenty for ourselves and as gifts for family and friends. It’s just one of those things that was so fun I just had to do it over and over. Two days straight with canning two batches of 10 pints each. Now you know what to expect out of a bushel of apples. Plan accordingly.

Cows On to the animals. Most of the cows are still grazing on grass. It’s amazing. No hay for the main herd yet. We are near the end of December. The plan is progressing nicely. Most of the year there will be no hay expenses for these girls. It’s a giant step forward in our homestead plan. Everyone is doing well.

Just last night a new possibility arose to add another new bred heifer or young cow to our herd. This time if it works out, we will be adding another purebred Normande to our homestead. We’re excited. It will be a very, very long trip, but so worth it. These young ladies are hard to come by and we hope to remedy that in the future by having lots and lots of heifers for ourselves as well as having some to sell to others. I can’t tell you how many people have asked me if we have any heifers for sale. It seems lots of people are looking for these beautiful cows and there just aren’t that many heifers available. Especially that have the milking genetics. I’ll keep you posted on how this new development progresses. And if you are one of those looking for a Normande, drop me an email and I’ll let you know who to contact.

Donkeys All of the donkeys got their hooves trimmed. Johnny was really, really difficult. I think more difficult than he has ever been. He was constantly kicking, jerking, moving around. And when Scott got to the last hoof, he just layed down. It was a very trying experience for all concerned. On the other hand, Cocoa is getting used to it. She did really well. And as always, Daisy and Sweet Pea just stand there. It’s old hat for them. Glad to get that accomplished.

All of the donkeys have their winter coats. They are like little fuzz balls.

Sheep I was going out the driveway yesterday and noticed the sheep are looking nice and fat. I’m talking about the breeding group in the front pastures. They look really round but it is too early for that to be pregnancy showing. Sheep gestation is only five months. They are not even two months along. It is that last month that they get really big and round. No these girls are just really healthy and strong. It’s good to see them doing so well.

Creamery The roof is in progress. What a job it was to get the material here and unloaded. It was not without issue. Plus, the wind contributed to some additional damage to the materials. Scott is out there right now finishing one run of metal on the lower end of the loafing shed.

This morning it was quite the ordeal to get the last pieces delivered and transported from the road back to the building site. Scott had quite the elaborate setup in place and it would have worked beautifully if his tractor had had a little more toughness. Unfortunately, it was just a little bit too small for the task. The metal was bundled all in one piece and was delivered on a tow truck. Because the pieces are so long, this was the only way to get it to us. Department of transportation rules for how much can hang off of a trailer made this job much harder to accomplish.

Bent Roofing Material – Oops Anyway, the tow truck arrived this morning with the roof metal. Scott had our hay trailer rigged up so the bundle could be lifted up off the truck, the tow truck would drive out from under the bundle, Scott would back his hay trailer under it and then lower the bundle onto our hay trailer. He had already tested his ability to drive it back to the building site. All should work well. We had a neighbor friend bring his tractor over to help lift the load. All actually did go well for a brief moment. Then the load shifted, Scott’s smaller tractor was just not able to hold up the load and it slipped off the forks. Lots of bent metal sheets. A few more gyrations and they got it onto the trailer and the rest of the plan went smoothly. It’s all there next to the building ready for Scott and I to unload it one sheet at a time. That’s for tomorrow.

More Bent Roofing Material Last week Scott picked up a different load of metal. These were shorter pieces that fit on the hay trailer. He and I unloaded that without issue. Yesterday, Scott laid out quite a few sheets of these metal sheets onto some sawhorses. Even before going out to the road to meet the tow truck driver, he discovered that the thunder I thought I heard last night was actually the wind blowing those large pieces of metal all over the place. More bent metal roof panels. You can’t have everything go right every day. That just would not be real homestead living. In the end, the roof will be completed and all will be well. I have a long day tomorrow helping with the heavy lifting and moving those 27-foot sheets of metal off of the trailer and under the barn. Some of them will get moved to the roof as well. I expect my biceps and wrists to be sore again. But hey, that’s one of the reasons we do what we do. No need to go to the gym. They are closed anyway. Daily life on the homestead is a workout that is never boring.

Final Thoughts That’s it for this podcast. Trials and tribulations galore. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. All in all, things are going well for us on the homestead at the present time. We say our prayers and thank God for our blessings. The animals are healthy (well except for that one quail) and we are healthy.

I can’t get enough of those quail. It looks like we finally have all the issues worked out. We are back to normal operations with everybody happy and content in their little homes. I just put a jar of pickled quail eggs out on the counter as an appetizer for tonight’s dinner.

The creamery is moving along at a good clip. It won’t be long and we will have finally realized that dream. Just another one of those blessings I’m always talking about.

In the near future I’m going to be updating the website to highlight our raw milk cheese herd shares. Look for updates on that next time. This year’s cheeses are superb. If you regularly eat a pound or two of cheese per month, you might want to think about joining our herd share program. You can own a piece of the herd and dine on locally produced cheese.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Our raw milk cheese creamery was the center of the day today. The construction is moving along nicely. Our state inspectors made an appearance and helped us out with details on safety measures. We work with them every step of the way to make sure all safety concerns are addressed.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Winter animal care was high priority today. Let’s talk about that before we get into the details of our lovely raw milk cheese creamery project. We check up on the animals regularly. Some we can easily see in the front fields and every time we go out the driveway. Others are out there in the back fields. It takes a bit more effort to check up on them, but rest assured, they are not out of sight, out of mind. I’ll start with the cows.

Cows Our beautiful Normande cows are the centerpiece of our small farmstead raw milk cheese creamery. It is our habit to check on them first. I say first, but they are all out there together. And while we may be aiming at the cows, sometimes it is the sheep or goats that we encounter first. Many times, it is the donkeys. More on that later.

There are five big girls in our current herd. I say big girls because these five have already had a calf. We have our newest arrival, Rosie, who is still known has a heifer. That means she has never had a calf. I guess technically she is a bred heifer. She has never had a calf but is currently pregnant. Currently she is in a pasture with the younger calves so we can keep a closer eye on her as her pregnancy progresses.

The “Big” Girls Anyway, of the five big girls, four are pregnant. Everyone looks healthy and happy. Claire barely looked up as I approached. She was far too busy eating grass to give me much notice. Violet always looks up whenever we come near. She wants attention and yet she doesn’t want attention. I guess what she really wants in a treat. But they don’t get treats in the winter. Only during lactation. So, she will have to wait until late March or early April to get any more treats. Butter is quite open to petting, while Buttercup avoids it at all costs. Cloud has had her hooves repaired but she is still quite standoffish when out in the field. All of them are easy to get close to when they are up in the milking shed. Funny how that goes.

Grazing Abundance The grass in those back fields is holding up very well. They are literally still eating green grass and it is coming on close to mid-December. Scott believes they will not need hay until late February. I can’t tell you how great that is for a couple of reasons. The cost, of course, is always the first concern in my mind. I do all of the accounting and cost is always on my mind.

The next great thing is that the green grass is always going to be better nutrition and the animals truly prefer grass to hay. We want to keep them on green grass for as long as possible. Ideally, we would be able to graze them all the way through the winter until the spring grass appears in late March. That is a goal we likely will not meet for many years. We would need additional pasture, especially as we are on a path to grow our herd.

Hay is Still Needed If we double our herd size, having green grass available to them for the entire winter is a really long shot without clearing some of our wooded areas and turning them into pasture. That’s a huge job for the distant future. They do fine on hay. It’s just similar to having a burger and fries when you really want a nice traditional home-cooked dinner. Sure, the burger and fries will keep you fed. But the real treat is that homemade roast leg of lamb with macaroni and cheese on the side. Throw in some crowder peas and it is a meal to be savored.

Sheep Speaking of savoring a good meal, the sheep will continue to eat as much grass as they can scrounge. When the pickings get slim, the cows will rush to the hay as Scott brings it into the pasture. However, even when they have hay available, the sheep are going to go for every little bit of grass they can find. They eventually go eat the hay. And shortly thereafter, they are right back out there grazing on little bits of grass.

Counting Sheep One of the regular exercises we do when checking on animals is counting them. Well, we don’t really count the cows. They are all grazing quietly in the field and we simply identify them by name. The sheep can be a little trickier. They hang out in a bunch and they move together almost as one unit. Trying to pick out individual animals is nearly impossible. Even counting bodies can be a challenge. One method that works well is for Scott to walk toward them from one side and I hang out toward the other side. As they move away from him, they will string out just a little bit and I can more easily get an accurate count. Because they can see me, they walk or trot in my direction more slowly and I can get that accurate count. Eventually, they make a turn away from both of us and bunch up again. I gotta be quick with the count.

It’s important that we count regularly and make sure they are all there. If a predator starts picking them off, they will continue one by one until we do something. We have to be vigilant in protecting the sheep. We accounted for all 12 that are in the flock with the big cow girls. This includes three younger girls from spring a year ago and all nine of the lambs from this past spring.

Goats As far as the goats, well there is no goat counting. At least not nearly as often. There is little we can do to protect them that they cannot do for themselves. Goats are quite different from sheep in their herding behaviors. For one thing, they can go places sheep wouldn’t dare. Case in point, they were all in a different field than the cows and sheep. It seems that no matter which field that everyone else is currently occupying, the goats find a way to get into the next field. Another disadvantage to counting them easily is that they mill around much more randomly than the sheep. They do cluster together but it is a much larger circle. The space separating each animal is quite a bit larger. And when they see someone approaching, they all get up and start moving about in varying directions in small groups. Eventually, one will take the lead and start to move the herd in a particular direction, everyone else follows – sort of.

Goat Herds Again, this is a little different than sheep as they will be farther apart and then bunch up and then spread out again with one or two moving in a random direction. It’s kind of like they are trying to do a goat “head fake” trying to fool you into thinking they are going to run in a different direction from the rest of the herd. Lots of times it is not a fake and they bolt in that direction, taking 1/3 to 1/2 the herd with them. They split up into two or three groups and then rally back together after they run past you. This is what I am talking about when I refer to their self-protection against predators. They go in so many directions, it’s harder to catch them. It’s also harder to count them. Their speed and agility are phenomenal.

Today, when they saw us approaching, they immediately moved into the woods. Not running away in particular. Just moving out of sight and into the cover of trees. That’s a signal that these beauties are going to make you work hard for a head count. Maybe we’ll get them counted next time.

Donkeys While we were checking on everyone, the donkeys came up for a cuddle and to say “hi”. They have their fuzzy coats on for winter and look so sweet. Just about every day, they wander up to the milking shed and bray at us, well mostly Scott while he is out there working on the building next to them. Have I mentioned how people friendly donkeys are? According to what I’ve read, they are even more personable than horses. I can believe it. They followed me around while we were checking on the other animals. And Daisy likes to come up behind me when I stop and give me a little shove with her head. You know, just a little notice that, “Hey, I’m here. Give me some loving.” And one of the greatest things is that Cocoa will come up behind Daisy and put her head across Daisy’s back trying to get close enough for a nice nose rub, but keeping her mom between us. After that, she will come around and get a more proper petting. What would we do without our donkeys to brighten the day?

Raw Milk Cheese Creamery I didn’t give an update on our raw milk cheese creamery last time and lots has happened. There were special panels planned for the milking parlor and in the cheese make room. These panels are specifically chosen because they can be cleaned easily. That work is currently in progress.

Milking Parlor Scott started with the milking parlor. The special panels are smooth, white panels that are glued to the wall. It was a little tricky getting them to stick strongly enough for the glue to set up in the cooler weather. In fact, they never did stick completely. So, plan B had to be put into action. Scott found appropriate screws to hold the panels in place. So far, so good with that plan. The milking parlor is done. There was a small run under the ledge where they stand in front of us. And then there was a larger bit of paneling along the wall in front of the cows. On to the cheese make room and more challenges.

Raw Milk Cheese Make Room The cheese make room is designed to be cleaned easily and efficiently. These panels run from floor to ceiling, all the way around the room. I’m impressed with them. Clean up before, during and after cheesemaking is an important, necessary and time-consuming effort. These panels are going to be excellent for helping me out with keeping the room immaculate in the least amount of time.

Part of the challenge with getting the glue to stick relates to the ambient temperature and the temperature of the walls themselves. Even though screws have been added to the mix, they are really only there to hold it up against the wall until the glue can set. The panels are only screwed into the wall around the edges. The center is still held against the wall with glue. A few days ago, the temperature quite strongly took a downward turn. Additional techniques had to be employed to get the cheese make room warm enough to keep going with construction. It’s always something, right?

Heating Up the Room We have a couple of small space heaters we used during our time living in a camper in South Carolina. Those had to be dug out. One was already in use in the small cheese room to keep the temp up to the proper level in there. Scott tried to use the other, lesser unit to heat up the cheese make room. He had even tacked up heavy plastic on the ceiling beams to hold in some of the heat. Imagine the extra time added for that little bit of unplanned construction.

He added the heater but it wasn’t strong enough to do the job. The cheese make room is quite large. The cheese cave is much smaller than the cheese make room. The remedy for that was exchanging the radiant heater out of the cheese cave with the weaker heater. The lesser unit is adequate for the job of keeping the temperature up to the target in the cheese cave, though it does not hold the temperature with the same steadiness as the radiant heater. Anyway, the radiant heater worked well enough when moved to the cheese make room, keeping the temperature up to 50 degrees or so. The work on the wall is now progressing quite well in there.

Stairways to Attics Moving on to stairways. There will be two very long stairways from the ground to the attics. Attic space is in use above the creamery and then a half stair up to the attic above the milking parlor. There is an outside door into each of these areas. What’s missing is an easy way to get into those doors. Temporary methods using the tractor to lift a pallet full of stuff or simply climbing a ladder with your arms full are inadequate. Scott is working hard to get those stairs designed in between waiting for the cheese make room to be warm enough in which to work. Yay! I’ll be glad when the stairs are done. I sent lots of stuff up there for storage – stuff that I use but perhaps not that often. Being able to just climb the stairs to get it back will be great. And then of course, once I’m done using it, back up the stairs I go to put it back into storage. Lots of herd share jars, canning equipment, and so on. The dehydrator just made a trip back down and will go back up in a few days. Stairs are going to be great.

The Roof Another huge step forward is the ordering of the materials for the roof. That was a big deal. Many hours went into the estimates for how many and which pieces are needed to do the job. It is going to cost lots more than I expected, but in the end, you just pay for it and move on. You gotta have a roof and the roof area for this project is huge. Take a look at some of the photos and videos on our Facebook page. There will be much more to report on that coming up soon in future podcasts. The materials are ordered but have not yet arrived.

The VDACS Inspectors The last bit of info I want to share about the progress of the creamery is the visit from our local VDACS inspectors. VDACS is the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The state version of the USDA. We have a great guy that we have been working with for quite a few years, beginning long before the first tree was cleared from the land.

For this visit, he may brought along another inspector that will likely take over our inspections should he retire. She had been to our farm a couple of years ago and it was great seeing her again. Both of these great people offer lots of pertinent information to keep us out of trouble. We work together to spot areas where contamination may occur and how we might avoid the situation. New procedures, additional pieces of equipment and altering the work flow are all discussed.

We are getting closer and closer to completing this project and becoming a fully inspected USDA facility. At that point we will be ready to start selling our cheese to the local restaurants and wineries. Our dream gets closer every day, every moment.

Final Thoughts That’s about all I’m going to cover in today’s podcast. A brief trip around the homestead with updates on the animals and bringing you up to date on our progress with the creamery. I didn’t talk about the quail. I’m figuring out how to pickle quail eggs and I’ll wait until next time to give details on that. There are five different flavor recipes I’m trying out.

Christmas is fast approaching. I hope you are enjoying the season. We don’t celebrate the commercial Christmas. It has been many years since I had a tree or a wreath or lights or anything. Sometimes I think about it but the effort to make it happen does not fit into my schedule. My children are long grown and my youngest grandchild is now 16. How about a nice nativity scene? I can go with making that happen.

Family visits mostly happen over Thanksgiving so Scott and I generally celebrate the birth of our Lord with just the two of us. There are a few other family members that we may visit sometime after the 25th. And who knows who might pop in to see us? We shall see. It’s always great to get together with those we love and Christmas provides the time off from work for others making it easy for us to catch them at home and unburdened by work. I do hope to work in a short visit or two between now and New Years Day.

Once again, I want to thank you all for listening to me ramble on about our traditional raw milk cheese and traditional homestead living and I hope all your dreams come true as well.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

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Thanksgiving tradition is the topic today. I try not to date my podcasts, and today is no different this will be appropriate today and for many years to come. I promise.

Let me take a minute to say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you today George Washington’s First Thanksgiving Proclamation and a little bit about Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let’s do just a few homestead updates. Some of you will be upset with me if I don’t let you know how Claire and the girls are doing as well as the donkeys, sheep and goats. And then there are those quail.

Cows Let’s start with the cows. Cloud finally got some relief for her overgrown hooves. I mentioned this ages ago. We even had to stop milking her because she was so sensitive to us getting close to her rear hooves. Both were quite overgrown. Well recently she had begun to limp quite profoundly. And we just don’t let our animals live in pain. They must be treated as soon as possible. That required finding what is called a squeeze chute to be able to get to her hooves. It holds her comfortably without Cloud being able to kick the vet in the face and anywhere else she could land a hit. It took a day or two to get the device, set is up and coordinate with the vet. But it has all been accomplished. Yay!!

While the vet was here, we also had her cut off the sharp ends of Rosie’s horns. That didn’t go as well as we would have liked, but Rosie is fine and no longer able to intimidate the young calves with very sharp horns. While the vet was doing the trim, Rosie decided to kneel down. That caused the vet’s angle on the cut to be off and Rosie caused herself a bit more bleeding than we would have liked. It’s all over now and she will heal up just fine. I was biting my lip with anxiety and it was all for naught. She is fine. Rosie is a strong young lady. Scott says she is doing very, very well. She is alert, attentive, in no apparent distress.

Donkeys The donkeys are still awaiting their pedicure appointment. With the holidays and company arriving, this was put on the back burner for a few days. We are looking to get that done in the next few days.

Both sets of donkeys came up to say “hi” to the vet. There was a substantial amount of braying and hee hawing. There is nothing quite like a chorus of four donkeys trying to outdo one another.

Sheep and Goats Nothing really much to say about the sheep and goats. They are all just grazing, chewing their cud and wandering around the pastures. We are blessed to have no problems with these beautiful animals.

Quail The quail, which also seemed to easy, are proving to be a little bit of a challenge right now. I talked about the one white bird that was beat up by her companions. And I mentioned the one that had a mite infestation. Neither faired well when we tried to re-introduce them to their cage mates. Both ended up back in their individual brooder housing, completely separate from the others and also from each other.

Shortly after that, another hen from the same cage as the one with the mite infestation got bloodied. Because of recent experience, I moved her out immediately. And one of the roosters from the same group showed signs of being pecked on too much. He is also in his own brooder condo. Four birds in four separate living quarters. At this point we may just cull that whole cage of birds and be done with it. Once they show they will be too aggressive with each other, I don’t know that there is anything we can do about it. As I mentioned in the last podcast, Pecking Order, it’s a real thing. These birds can be vicious with each other.

Praise be to God, the rest of them seem to be doing fine. And the eggs are starting to come in at a much faster rate than we can consume them. It seems that 35 breeding hens is a bit much. We have plans to cull out eight birds, six of which are hens, so that should bring down the egg population a little bit.

There are 10 hens on each side of the penthouse. Yesterday, I got nine eggs from side and seven from the other. Previous to that day I was regularly getting seven and four respectively. It looks like we could be getting 10 on each side soon. On the bottom level are 12 hens out of the usual 15 in those cages. Three are in quarantine in the brooders. Those 12 hens are laying 10 to 11 eggs each day. I harvested 26 eggs yesterday. So you see, way too many. Realistically, we only need 15 to 20 eggs a day. We may have to cull even more before winter is done. Else we will be overwhelmed with tiny, cute quail eggs.

If you are interested, I will have them for sale at the farmer’s market. Three dollars a dozen. I’ll even have some recipes for you to try.

That’s it for the homestead updates. I’ll talk more about the creamery next time.

Thanksgiving Tradition I briefly mentioned that I had company earlier in the week. My son and daughter-in-law came all the way across the country for a visit. It was wonderful to see them again. Their Thanksgiving tradition is to arrive here on Saturday or Sunday before Thanksgiving and spend three to four days with us before moving on down the road to visit the other parents in South Georgia. Then a quick swing back to Oklahoma and back to work for both of them.

The Thanksgiving tradition of families getting together has been around for a long time in this country. Today, I want to talk about how that tradition originated. Likely there is going to be some information here that you have never heard. Or perhaps, like me, you may remember some of it vaguely and other parts are completely new. Let me start by going over some of the things that happened at the first Thanksgiving in 1621.

It is unlikely that any of you learned of the political disagreements between the native tribes. And there is a great deal of history leading up to 1621 that is left out of history books, and indeed today, is even being rewritten. I’m going to leave it to you to investigate this information. There are two articles that I will link in the show notes to get you started. The first is “History of the First Thanksgiving” by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks and published on the “History of Massachusetts Blog” on August 31, 2011. The second, “The First Thanksgiving Was Nothing Like What You Were Taught” by John Daniel Davidson was published in “The Federalist” dot com website on November 22, 2017.

These articles look at this bit of history as seen through the political eyes of the native population. One is written with a politically left vision and the other from the right. It is fascinating reading. The same native peoples appear in both accounts and the factual events are nearly identical, but the motivations for the events as told by the two authors are vastly different. It was very educational for me to say the least.

Neither of these perspectives speak to the motivations of the settlers which is what was presented in the history books of my childhood. The popular story is that the Pilgrims put on a feast and invited the natives to attend to thank them for their assistance in teaching them how to fish and hunt the local fowl and animals. The Pilgrims also learned how to use the hides of the animals to make clothing. There was much to be thankful for that year.

I’ll give a very brief historical account as I know it. I’m not vouching for the complete accuracy of what I’m about to say. But I think it is pretty close. You can fact check me. I’m okay with that.

The Pilgrims landed in November 1620 far north of their intended destination in the Virginia Colony. After a failed attempt to head south and go ashore in Virginia, they landed their ship, the Mayflower, in the bay that would become known as Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts. Winter was already upon them and they pretty much stayed on the ship throughout the winter of 1620-21.

In the spring of 1621, they emerged and began treating with the natives. I won’t get into all the details there. The politics are deep. Again, I’ll link to two articles that will give background on politics and motivations of the natives. It wasn’t all roses and daisies on either side. The settlers wanted to survive to fulfil their contracts with those who had sponsored them, as far as I can tell. The natives were trying to recover from a pandemic a few years back and rivals were vying for control of the area. Should they fight these newcomers or help them? What would benefit them the most.

As I mentioned, the natives did help the settlers – of the 102 that made the journey across the ocean, only 41 were the religious sect known as Pilgrims so I will refer to the entire group as “the settlers”. There is a lot more to that story as well. Anyway, the natives helped the settlers with planting, hunting and fishing. That assistance got the settlers through their first spring and summer and produced some provisions for the winter. When the harvest came in, they held a feast in honor of their success. They thanked God for getting them through this very trying ordeal where many died.

Now fast forward to George Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation. It was delivered October 3, 1789 and was a one-time event. It was Abraham Lincoln that created the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday to be held every year. Indeed, there have been many thanksgiving celebrations given in many different parts of the very young country even before Washington’s proclamation. But the text of Washington’s is inspirational. I’ll read it. It’s not that long. I’ll leave a link for this document as well.

“‘Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.’

“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

“And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

“Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.”

Do I have time to read Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation? Sure, why not? It is also delivered on October 3rd. This time in the year of our Lord 1863 in the midst of the civil war.

“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

“In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

“Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

“No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

“It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

“In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. Abraham Lincoln.”

Final Thoughts That’s it. I know people say that our founders were not religious; that they didn’t have much to do with religion at all. Some say they were atheists or agnostics. But George Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation tells me otherwise. The holiday tradition we know as Thanksgiving is about turning our attention to being grateful for the blessings in our lives. And it truly is about giving thanks to God for each and every one of those blessings. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Let all celebrate as they choose, with or without thanking God, but the truth about this traditional holiday is indisputable. The Pilgrims thanked God. George Washington thanked God. Abraham Lincoln thanked God.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

References: * History of the First Thanksgiving * The First Thanksgiving Was Nothing Like What You Were Taught * George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation * Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

Website www.peacefulheartfarm.com

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Pecking order and Quail are in the news again today. There is always something new with these little guys. I have so much fun with them. They are very entertaining. However, quail, and all birds and fowl, have a dark side. The “pecking order” occurs in many species of animal. It’s done to establish the dominant animal then the next most dominant, and the next and the next, all the way down to the “low man on the totem pole”. However, the very words “pecking order” have to do with birds pecking each other to establish dominance. Not only the quail, but the cow pecking order is in the podcast today.

Before I get into all of that, I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners. Thank you for joining me. And a hearty welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars. Thank you for stopping by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. Let’s get to it.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Garden The garden is done. I still have some perennial herbs going strong out there, but everything else is done. We need to do lots of cleanup of old, dead plants. The ground cover we used to keep the weeds down will remain in place through the winter. Yes, weeds will survive through the winter and even grow if not kept in check.

After the cleanup, the next details on the garden will be talking about what we plan for next year.

Creamery Scott has made so much progress with the creamery. All of the open cracks between the blocks have been filled. Additionally, he put a beautiful finish on the concrete blocks. As I mentioned in a previous podcast, it looks a bit like stucco now. That took a lot of extra time and effort. Scott is really good at working on these small touches to add beauty to the building. I say small touches. The idea is small, but the work to make it happen was large, really large.

Today Scott is out there making final measurements for roofing materials. He also has a list of odds and ends kinds of tasks to get the building in tip-top shape.

A week or so ago he moved all of the winter hay under the roof of the loafing area. That’s going to save some money on hay. He got it done just before the latest remnant of a hurricane came through and dropped another three or so inches of rain on us.

Animal Husbandry Donkeys The donkeys are getting ready for their hoof trimming appointment. I was talking with Scott about this just this morning. He let me know that in a previous podcast I had said that Johnny was getting better about standing still for his trimming – and he did not see that as a true statement. According to Scott, Johnny is just as stubborn today as he has been since the first day he arrived on the homestead. Then he told me a story about a neighbor and friend who as a couple of donkeys. His hoof trimming story made Scott’s dealings with Johnny look like a walk in the park. It seems there is always someone, somewhere who has a bigger problem. These stories can help with perspective on our challenges.

I’ll put in a little bit about pecking order for all of the animals. Daisy is definitely the matriarch ruler of the donkeys. I don’t know the order beyond that. They tend to hang out in pairs. Daisy and Cocoa are one pair. Johnny and Sweet Pea are the other pair. They are in separate pastures right now so they have no choice but to pair that way. However, when they are together, they still pair up that way. I think Sweet Pea rules in the Sweet Pea/Johnny pairing.

Sheep There are still two flocks of sheep, but now configured differently. A small flock of five was originally all boys. Now the small flock of five is one boy, Lambert, and his four female companions. The other four boys are with the rest of last year’s lambs and a couple of other ewes that we decided not to breed this year. There are twelve members in that flock. All are doing well, no issues. The sheep have been the easiest of our animals for quite some time now. I don’t know if we have worked out most of the kinks or they are just easier to deal with in general.

Pecking order in the sheep is much harder to see and perhaps they are one of the few animals that do not have one. Sheep hang together as a group better than any of the other animals. They instinctively know that there is power in numbers. If a coyote can get one animal separate, that animal is a goner. So they really huddle together while grazing. The only time I see them jockeying for position is when we have them huddled together. They will butt heads and push each other a little bit there. Watching them move in the field, you can see who the leaders are, the ones that everyone else follows. Again, they tend to stick very close together. One will lead and the rest follow – like sheep. Haha.

Goats The goats are the next easiest animal to deal with on our homestead. We have the internal parasites under control. There is only one real issue with them and that is their hooves needing to be trimmed. They tend to become lame from time to time. I’ve said it before. We are going to gradually phase out our current herd of cashmere goats and replace them with a hardier meat breed. One that is known for low parasite loads and low hoof maintenance.

Kiko goats and Spanish goats are the breeds we are considering. Both of these breeds have closer ties to their original, wild state than some of the most popular breeds of goats which have been bred to bring out specific characteristics. Usually either meat or milk. Just like breeding any animal, as you make your genetic choices, some things improve and others get worse. Animals living in the wild are always going to be hardier. Without humans making genetic selections, wild species develop characteristics around one goal. The goal is to survive. In the case of goats, wild species do not have humans there to trim their hooves and treat internal parasites. They must evolve to be resilient, resourceful and efficient in their genetics.

Among the goat girls, I don’t see much pecking order. If pressed, they will huddle together like the sheep. However, if they feel threatened, one or more of them will break away from the herd in different directions. I think they rely on their speed and agility to get away from predators. Coyotes hunt in packs and work best when they separate one animal from the rest. But the goats are fast enough to get away, I think. Anyway, one or more will break away as I said. Then the rest of the herd scatters. Goats are significantly harder to herd than sheep if they get excited. If you keep them calm and gently move them a little at a time, they are not so hard to move.

So I think the goat girls have a much subtler pecking order. If we were working them closely like we do the cows, we might see it more. We don’t have goat boys anymore, but there was definitely a pecking order there. Appomattox was king and Roanoke was prince. Everybody else was down from there. Sometimes I miss the boys. They were all so regal with their long, curled horns.

Cows The calves are completely weaned from milk. They are out there grazing on grass full time now. The preg checks on the girls are done and we have five of six that are pregnant. It is as we expected. Buttercup is not pregnant. We were pretty sure that was the case but it is nice to know for sure. Our newest heifer, Rosie, is pregnant. She was bred at a very young age so I got some really good advice from the vet about how to help her through the process. The central bit of advice is that she needs to grow.

Rosie will get extra feed all winter. She was getting just a taste to get her trained to put her head in the milking stanchion. However, the vet recommended she gets lots of extra feed with at least 14% protein, as much as she wants without getting fat. We don’t want her to get fat because that would complicate the birth as well, but she needs to grow. She needs to get bigger. The extra feed will help her with that. We give her the best feed available. It is non-soy, non-gmo organic dairy feed, 15% protein.

Scott and I had this long discussion on how to feed Rosie while not feeding the rest of the herd. We are a grass-fed operation for the most part. The big girls get a little supplement while they are producing milk. Other than that, it is grass year-round with supplemental hay in the winter. That’s it.

In order to get Rosie the extra feed she needs a separate pasture area is required. We need to keep her close to be able to get feed to her efficiently. Now who to put with her as a companion? The calves are too small. She has already shown she will bully them so we can’t put Rosie with the calves. The calves will get merged into the big girl herd as soon as those big girls stop producing milk. Moving the calves frees up that pasture area. It’s close. We can easily keep an eye on Rosie.

Should we put the two Jerseys together? Butter is high in the pecking order and Rosie is low man on the totem pole being the youngest and latest addition to the herd. Rosie will not bully Butter. Could Butter be the one to be a companion for Rosie? Naw. Butter would simply bowl her over and grab her feed.

After some little discussion, we decided that Buttercup is the perfect choice as companion for Rosie. Unlike Butter, who will bowl over anyone who gets between her and feed, Buttercup is the opposite and pretty ambivalent towards anything but grass. Oh, she will eat her supplements, but she is not eager. Rosie will get her feed and Buttercup will just keep grazing and may not even notice. Any of the other cows would immediately come up and start competing for that feed. Hopefully, it will work out as we have envisioned it. If not, we will come up with another plan.

One other note on pecking order amongst the cows. Once the calves get added to the main herd, Rosie will no longer be low man. At least until the calves are full grown. If Virginia and Luna get bigger than Rosie – and they will – Rosie may end up back at the bottom again. We shall see. Butter is smaller than Violet and also a fairly recent addition to the herd, but I’m pretty sure Violet is only one step higher than Rosie. Butter pushes Violet around at will. Claire will always be matriarch and Buttercup right behind her, or maybe Cloud. Those two are close in dominance. Violet, Butter and Rosie are down the line. I don’t know all of their criteria for order of dominance, but it is quite educational to watch it all happen.

Milking We have three more days of milking and then we are done for this year. There is always a sigh of relief as the final day of milking is complete. The constant, every day, no breaks schedule of milking is not for the faint of heart. Some people do it year-round. Twice a day, every day, 365 days a year. That’s not for us. We love our cows. And we love our milk and dairy products. But we don’t love it so much that we give up our entire lives for it. Nope. We have a plan for making a living and milking seasonally.

Maybe some time in the far future we will sell our little dairy and someone else will come in and want to a milk a larger herd of cows, every day, 7 day-a-week, 365-days a year. They will have the setup to do that as well. We have created a creamery with lots of flexibility to scale up as needed. We could scale it up if the need arose. Right now, the business plan is seasonal milking. We have three more days of milking and then we are done for this year.

Skim Milk and Yogurt Over the past couple of weeks, I have been freezing skim milk. Scott will drink it after we run out of fresh whole milk and I now have enough to see him through the winter. The final six gallons went into the freezer this morning. Whole milk does not freeze well. The cream separates and get lumpy. It doesn’t incorporate back into the milk very well. I’ve heard stories of people making it work, but I never have been able to do it. Even thawing it very slowly and shaking it up a lot. The cream is just changed by the freezing process and there is no going back.

I will still be making yogurt for a few more days. There are seven quarts in each batch stored in 14 pint containers with tight lids. The yogurt is an experiment to see how long it will last in the refrigerator. I’m making enough for three or four months. Will it be edible three of four months from now? I don’t know. We’ll keep you up-to-date on that as we progress through the winter. In the end, we will know exactly how long we can keep yogurt and that’s useful information.

Quail Now on to the quail and their pecking order. I don’t know if there is another animal that is as vicious as birds when it comes to pecking order. Sure, they are cute and fun to watch. But turn your back and the next thing you know they are pecking so much they actually injure one another. We had just that scenario recently.

There is only one white bird among all of the other shades of brown birds. A little over a week ago, she got injured. Her head was bleeding just a bit. The next day I went out there and the other birds had severely injured her, literally scalping her. Once they had the taste of blood in their mouth, they just kept going and going. I quickly got her out of there and into private lodging. She is healing up but it is going to take a long time. Especially when there was quite a set-back. One of the birds was obviously in distress with mites. So we were cleaning out all of the cages, disinfecting them and treating the birds and cages for parasites.

We moved all of the birds out of the cages and into the various plastic boxes we use as brooders for young birds. I put the white one back in with her original group just to see how it would go. Not a good idea. After only a couple of hours, she was bloodied again. Naturally, she is back in her private domain once again.

The other bird that was showing signs of parasite infestation has been removed from her group as well. It was a few days before we got the permethrin we needed to treat the birds and cages, so I moved her away from the others. While cleaning the cages, we put her back in with her former cage companions. Same couple of hours and she had a small bit of blood on top of her beak. I decided immediately that she needed to be separated until that healed. The blood is just too tempting for these guys. Again, birds are vicious. And remember, even though you can buy chicken eggs in the grocery store that say “vegetarian fed”, birds are NOT vegetarians. They are very carnivorous, though they will eat veggies as well. You will recall the stories of the early bird getting the worm while you were growing up. That story meant to teach promptness to children. However, it also illustrates that birds like worms. They also like bugs. Birds are not vegetarian.

Anyway, I really love my quail. They are a joy to watch. But they are still animals. They exhibit animalistic tendencies. Make no mistake, they have a pecking order and only the strong survive. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep my one white hen. She may be too different from the others. She may be low man on the totem pole because of her color. I don’t know. I’ll still make the effort to get her healed and back with her group. But if it happens again, I’ll have to make a different choice for her. It would be cruel to continue to let her be pecked so badly. Sometimes the only choices are tough ones.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s Peaceful Heart Farmcast. As usual, there is a lot going on at the homestead. Always something new, something different. Life is filled with wonder and awe at nature and God’s creation. The hierarchy of the animal kingdom is alive and well. It has worked for thousands of years to bring us and our animal friends to this point in time. We fully expect the pecking order to ensure that life continues to the end of time. Sometimes it’s ugly. Just as our lives can be tough. But we all do the best we can with what we have. We cry and pray and hope to live to see another day.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Breeding sheep is one of the most enjoyable enterprises on our homestead. Sheep were the first animals we introduced back in 2010. They have been a central part of our operation since then. I’ll talk about that today.

Welcome new listeners and welcome back veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you all so much for listening. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Before we get to the sheep, what else is going on here on the homestead?

Creamery The holes in the walls are still being filled in by Scott. Who knew it was going to take this much time to complete that task? Well, the building is rather large and parts of it are very high. That requires special ladders and scaffolding and such to be able to reach the tallest parts of the walls. Additionally, Scott is finishing the concrete block walls in such a way that they resemble stucco. It takes a bit more time and effort but the result is quite beautiful. I’m very pleased with the effect. I can’t wait to see it painted. Maybe a nice off-white stucco color to enhance the look. We shall see. I actually leave color decisions to Scott. I have no head for decorating. Thank God he has a wonderful head for it. Everything he builds reflects his eye for beauty, symmetry, style, color and so much more.

Quail We now have seven breeding sets of quail. Count them, seven. We made a day of it. Somewhere along the line we lost one that I didn’t know about. The final count in the penthouse was 56 birds. We processed 32 of them and kept 24 additional birds for eggs.

Fowl or Foul? After finishing the processing, we went back out to their cages and took every single bird out of their cages. Scott spent lots of time cleaning up those cages and getting them sanitized for the winter. Have you even wondered why birds are called fowl? Well there is another spelling of the word foul and it has to do with awful smells. I tend to think that this is why birds are referred to as fowl. All birds have to have their roosts, cages and runs cleaned regularly. Otherwise, they smell foul. Well, there is always some smell from time to time no matter what you do. Take that into consideration when planning the location of your chicken and/or quail homes.

Lighting Another addition to the quail housing was adding lights. They will now have light for 14 hours a day. That is what is required for them to produce eggs. The new girls have yet to lay a single egg and the older hens, 15 of them, were down to producing no more than six to eight eggs per day. Even that would have dropped to zero or nearly zero in the near future. Inadequate amounts of light make feeding your birds through the winter counter-productive.

There is an automatic timer on the lights. It comes on at 4 am and will stay on until 6 pm. So even on a dreary day like today, they have plenty of light. We use bulbs that produce the “daylight” spectrum of light. It’s not quite the same as most grow lights. Well, I take that back. I think lots of grow lights are going to the daylight spectrum to more closely emulate growing plants outdoors. The same for the birds. We want them to have as natural a light as possible.

Egg Production Because we have seven sets of breeders, that means there are 35 hens out there. If those lights work like we hope, we could potentially have 35 eggs per day in a couple of weeks. It will take at least a week and perhaps two for the light to affect their egg production. In addition to the light, they get lots of good nutrition and supplements to make sure they have everything they need to be healthy and productive.

Donkeys I got to say hi to the donkeys a couple of times in the last few days. I haven’t been seeing too much of them as my homestead tasks have led me elsewhere. It’s so good to see them up close and personal. And they are personal. Donkeys love humans. They love human attention. And we love giving it to them. It won’t be long and they will be getting another bit of attention that is not so popular with them, but necessary. Hoof trimming.

Yes, they need to get their toenails done. Scott handles the nail salon and I just offer comfort while the uncomfortable deed is accomplished. All are getting more and more used to it. Daisy nearly falls asleep while it’s going on where Johnny and Cocoa still have some real fear issues with it. They are getting better each time. We shall see how it goes this time. Maybe they will have completely overcome their fear just like Daisy and Sweet Pea.

Cows and Calves The cow girls are doing fantastic. Rosie has integrated well into the herd. She is low-man on the totem pole, as would be expected. But she is getting along with everyone and thriving in her new environment. Scott is training her and retraining Cloud to come into the milking shed and stick their heads into the milking stanchion. This is in preparation for the vet to do pregnancy checks on all of the girls. The milking stanchions are very convenient for restraining our girls in comfort while medical checks and treatments are performed. I think I’ll ask Scott about cutting off Rosie’s horns too. Once she is used to putting her head in the stanchion, we can easily saw off those horns of hers. It’s quick and painless but she will definitely need to be restrained for her safety and ours.

Calf Weaning We are nearing the time when the calves will be completely weaned. A week or so ago, I stopped giving them their second bottle of whole milk in the evening. At the present time they get ½ gallon of whole milk only in the morning. In the evening they get ½ gallon of skim milk. As soon as my stores of skim milk run out, they will only get whole milk in the morning. That will last for a week or so and then no milk at all.

Drying up the Milk Cows We are still milking the big girls twice a day but that is about to change. Their milk becomes less and less as the days go on, the longer they go into their milking cycle. The quality of the milk also changes as they get later into their lactation cycle. Soon it will be time to dry them up. That means we will go to only milking once a day, then once every other day and finally stopping altogether. More details on that in a later podcast. We will start that process in a week or so.

Garden and Fruits We are still waiting on that first frost. The garden is still going. Scott said he thought that first frost might come in the next couple of days, as soon as the rain from the remnants of hurricane Zeta stops. I didn’t want the lima beans to be soaked at the same time I was forced to pick them before a frost. So I did what any other sane homesteader would do. I rushed out there this morning before the rain started and picked everything. Literally, I pulled up the plant, stripped the bean pods and piled the spent plants to the side. It only took a little while and I’m glad to get that part done. The pods were actually still wet from the last rain we had from the remnants of hurricane Delta. At least I think that one was as hurricane. I have the beans laid out on newspaper to dry.

Lots of Storms Can you believe the number of named storms this year? I think this is the first time in my 65 years that we have gone completely through the alphabet and now five letters, so far, into the Greek alphabet. We still have another month to go in the official tropical storm/hurricane season. Eleven have hit the US coast as either a tropical storm or hurricane. Most were relatively small. Tropical storms or category one or two hurricanes. Laura was a category 4 hurricane. I believe six storms have hit the gulf coast, mostly Louisiana. Pray for them. Even category one and two hurricanes can bring lots of water damage and some wind damage.

Okay, that was a bit of a tangent. Back to the garden. I also picked a few tomatoes. I know, I know. I’m supposed to be done with the tomatoes. But there were a few that looked really good so I snagged them. I have quite a few avocadoes in the frig and some guacamole always sounds good to me. It will be missing that lovely fresh cilantro taste as all of those plants died, but we will make do somehow.

Peppers and Celery A couple of days ago I picked peppers yet again. I have plenty of jalapeno for the guac. I have so many peppers in the refrigerator. I really, really need to get cracking on getting the pepper jam completed and drying the rest in the dehydrator.

Speaking of dehydrating. I grew all of that celery to be dried as well. That needs to be harvested but I wasn’t too worried about it being wet. The wetness will help keep it fresh as I work my way through the entire crop. Other things on the dehydrating list include, basil, parsley, oregano and thyme.

Grapes and Strawberries Scott brought me a few grapes to try out. They are muscadine. We get a few more each year, but still not many to speak of at this point in their maturity. Soon, very soon, that will change. Looking forward to making grape jam and maybe some muscadine wine.

The strawberries have survived the onslaught of weeds and are blooming once again. Those are tough little plants. I have a plan for them for next year. More on that later.

Sheep Breeding Let’s talk about sheep breeding. A couple of days ago I was talking with Scott about the sheep breeding schedule and what we need to do to accomplish our goals. Well first was clarifying and getting on the same page with goals. We had already discussed this so it was a matter of recalling the final decision.

Ewe in Heat A funny anecdote related to sheep breeding talk was the ewe that was eager to get started. Just about the time we were discussing our plan, this ewe was hanging out all by herself near the closet fence to the boys. She was really persistent. Number one, ewes nearly always stay together. Nobody goes off on her own. They are skittish and careful animals. But this young lady was actively looking for romance.

I walked almost right up to her before she moved away. I was walking down the travel lane on my way to bring up the cow girls for milking. And there she was, hanging out near the gate, mooning over the boys that she could see across the field, but could not get to. I walked up to her and she finally moved away a few feet. She walked along the lane for 20 feet or so, then she stopped and looked around at me to see if I was still coming. I was. She turned and went other 20 feet of so before stopping yet again, just to make sure I was still there and that it would be impossible for her to get around me. This ewe was really persistent. She continued this behavior all the way back to the main flock.

Persistent Ewe in Heat She stayed with the rest of the flock while I rounded up the girls and began the trek back to the milking shed. About the time I got up to the holding area and closed the fence that keeps the cows in while they await their turn at milking, she was back down there at the corner mooning over the boys yet again. Don’t worry honey, you’ll get your chance in just a few more days the great switcheroo of animals will begin. The boys will stay with the girls for most of the winter. Sometime in late spring we will separate the boys again and put all of the girls back together. Then we await the most glorious event of spring. The birthing of lambs.

Which Ewes Will We Breed? There are currently 12 ewes in the flock. We are going to breed four of them. These will be the four older ewes. That means we can expect up to eight lambs in the spring. We had ten last year, but that came about because we just bred all of them, young and old. A first-year ewe usually has a single lamb. And sometimes older ewes will have only one lamb as well. However, it is more common that the second year and each year thereafter, a ewe will have twins and sometimes triplets.

Last year, three of the older girls had twins, one older girl had a single, another older girl did not have one at all and all three of the young girls had singles. That was five older ewes. Since then we have eliminated the oldest ewe and will be going with the four ewes between three and five-years-old. This is the current makeup of our main breeder flock. The three younger ewes will not be bred again. The reason for that is Lambert, our new breeding ram, is a ½ sibling to two of them and full sibling to one of them. That simply won’t work if we want to maintain strong genetics.

What Will We Do? In order to accomplish only breeding the four selected ewes, it means we need to bring them all in, separate the ones that will be bred from the rest of the flock and put these two groups into separate spaces. Then we bring up the boys and introduce them to the breeding ewes. We can put all of the boys in with the breeding girls because only one of them is still intact. That would be Lambert. He is our breeding ram. This will be his first season. I will pray that he does well. We could also put the boys other than Lambert in with the ewes that are not being bred this year. That would require a second routine to get Lambert separated from the other boys. Scott will make that call when we get to that point.

There are so many decisions that go into every activity on our homestead. Each one has pros and cons. Making the same decision one year may not be the same as the previous year. Circumstances are always changing. I was listening to Kanye West in his interview with Joe Rogan talking about how hard it is to farm. He is attempting to come up with better methods to provide good nutrition to the poorer population. Farming is so much more than putting some seeds in the ground and waiting for them to grow. The same with animals. It is so much more than just putting them out there in the pasture and watching them graze. Every decision is a well-thought-out plan to fulfill a current need. Those needs are always evolving. Some decisions turn out to be counterproductive. But there is always next year and new opportunities to improve.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I hope you enjoyed the trip around the homestead. It is always my pleasure to share our peace and joy with you. Perhaps you’ve gotten some new ideas on what to do for your own dreams and perhaps you just came along for the ride. In any case, we’ll keep you in the loop.

We are heading into late fall and winter. Likely I’ll slow down a little and perhaps only podcast a couple of times a month. The spring and summer are always so full. Slowing down for winter is just another way we work in harmony with nature.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Fall weddings are really beautiful. June weddings are quite popular, but I prefer fall weddings. I just prefer the fall. The colors are awesome. Earth tones everywhere. Yellow, orange, brown, rusty red. Some of my favorite colors. Today I’m going to talk about what makes weddings special no matter the season.

But first, I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I say it every time and I mean it every time. I appreciate you all so much.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates What’s going on at the homestead right now? Well, it turns out a lot.

Creamery Today, I’m starting with the creamery. It’s so exciting to see it evolving day by day. Scott has worked so hard on this project and continues to work hard every day to get it done. Even when I’m sick or traveling or whatever and he has to step in and take on my work load, he is right there picking up my slack and getting his tasks done as well. He is so amazing.

What he thought would be a rather quick task of a day or two is turning out to be days and days and days. That’s because he is doing such a magnificent job of it. I’m talking about filling in those spaces between the blocks that has been on his radar for weeks. It needs to be completed before the weather gets too cold and the mortar wouldn’t set up as well.

He has been at it for quite a few days and it looks wonderful. Not only is he filling in the spaces between the blocks, he is also giving it a wonderful rough finish. It’s going to be truly stunning once completed and painted. He always goes that extra mile to make his work durable and beautiful.

Cows The cows and bulls got shuffled around. Only two bulls with a few sheep are in one animal group. The larger group of our milking girls, the main flock of sheep and all of the goats are getting ready for the rotation through the back fields.

Stock Rotation We rotate our stock for several reasons. The biggest reason I think is for parasite control. They never eat the grass down so low they are re-ingesting parasites they just eliminated. Fresh, tall grass makes that impossible. Another huge reason for rotating stock is managing the grass. Just like any other animal, they eat all the really tasty stuff first and leave the undesirable stuff behind. Well, if you let that continue, all of the really tasty stuff eventually gets eliminated and only the less nutritious and less desirable grass is left.

Keeping them confined in a small area until they must eat the second and third desirable grass maintains a variety of grasses in the pasture. No one grass is left to take over. All are grazed and that maintains a balance. It is a delicate dance to get them to eat everything without eating it too far to the ground.

Standing Hay The fields in the back have been left to grow without being grazed for many months now. We have been working towards a goal of having enough grass for the livestock to graze throughout the winter without feeding hay. I’m thinking we are not quite there yet, but we get closer every year. The longer we can go without having to put out hay, the better. Leaving these fields to grow throughout most of the summer without being grazed makes a kind of hay in the field that we don’t have to buy.

Sheep It’s getting closer and closer to the time when the sheep will begin their breeding cycle. This task is so much easier to handle that getting the cows bred. We simply put the breeding ram in with the girls – the ones we pick out for breeding – and that’s all there is to it. We do not have to keep such a close check on exactly when the lambs are born. They can be born over two or even three months if necessary and our plans will still come out all right. Not like the cows when we need the calves to be born within a specific window because of our milking schedule.

The lambs grow out over a year or even a little longer. We process them as needed for ourselves and for our customers.

Garden There isn’t much to say about the garden. We still have a lot of clean up to complete and I still have some peppers growing out there. The first frost hasn’t happened yet. We will go as long as possible before clearing out everything that will be killed off by the frost. That includes the lima beans, the basil, parsley, and the potatoes as well as the peppers. The other herbs need to be moved to containers for planting in a more permanent location in the spring. I suppose I could just leave them where they are until spring, then create the herb garden of my dreams. We shall see.

Fall Weddings Now I’m on to fall weddings. I just returned from a trip to Oklahoma where my grandson was married and is now off on his honeymoon. It was as beautiful service. I got to see family that I haven’t seen in years. It had been four years since I had been to Oklahoma to see my children and grandchildren. Some of them have visited me here in Virginia in between but it’s always nice to get to visit them. I hadn’t seen my sister and her daughter and grandchildren in longer still. It was wonderful to see them.

Oklahoma I lived in Oklahoma for four years and loved every minute of it. The seasons are similar to ours here in Virginia. It does get a little hotter in the summer and a bit colder in the winter – and those scary tornadoes – but overall, the USDA growing season is about the same.

Weddings are wonderful no matter the time of year. When two people come together and pledge to love one another through thick and thin, the bad and the good, it’s a beautiful thing. Life will bring them many challenges and with God’s help they will meet those challenges together. I didn’t get the chance to ask about their plans for my great-grandchildren. We shall see.

The Marriage Relationship One of the unique things about a marriage relationship is that we choose it. We do not choose our mother, father, brothers, sisters, or other relatives. Marriage is the only one we choose on purpose. It is where you spend most of your life. As a child you spend 18 to 20 or 22 or so years with your parents. But those parents will spend that time and much more together as a couple. As a married couple you share all sorts of physical, mental and emotional challenges.

And marriage is only the first step. Having children and a family is the next logical step for most married couples. In fact, it may be the reason they came together. They wanted to raise a family. In raising a family, the solid base of humanity is maintained. It is the raising of children that then have children who also have children that maintains the human species.

Traditional Marriage and Parenting Traditionally, the role of the parents was to raise other human beings that would contribute to society. These new adults would further society and continue the tradition that came before them. In this way, humanity was able to evolve over millennia and not become extinct like so many other species. It is the natural way of our world. It is how we came to be today.

But today sometimes it seems like that natural world is falling apart. In this world of computers, iPhones, iPads and social media, we have lost touch with each other. We have lost the physical touch. And in this day of covid19 it has gone even further. Many of us are afraid to hug another human being. We are afraid of dying from loving another. I find this heart wrenching.

Why We Survived as a Species Over thousands of years we have survived many hardships. Many times, our population could have been wiped out. Many times, millions of people have died during these difficult periods of our history. Never before have we stopped living our lives. Why have we stopped living our lives this time? I do not have an answer. Likely there are many reasons.

At my grandson’s wedding, his grandparents on his father’s side did not attend the wedding. They were afraid of covid19. I cannot fault them on their choice. Especially since I have no idea their state of health. We all must make choices during this time. I am grateful that we live in this country where we can make those choices – well in most places in the country we can still make those choices. I realize some states have been stricter than others in this. I was pleased that the restrictions were few. The wedding was outside and there was no restriction there. Inside, the only restriction was wearing a mask while in the buffet food line.

Joyful Occasion It was beautiful to see people interacting, talking dancing, laughing and enjoying themselves with no apparent fear or apprehension. I’m only now just thinking of this. People hugged. People danced closely with one another. People talked in groups of one, two, five or more and no masks. Many of you are listening to this now with horror, I know. But for me, it was a joyful experience as it should be at any wedding. Maybe some will get sick. Maybe some will get very sick. Maybe some will die. But all will live their lives knowing they enjoyed that moment in time. And it was worth every moment, no matter the outcome.

Fall marriages and indeed marriages at any time of year symbolize the starting of yet another journey into adulthood with good times and bad times, challenges, loves, and yes even fears. It is life.

The Grace of God I feel so for those that now live in fear for their lives. They fear loving others in any physical way. It’s so sad. Yes, wear your mask as you feel the need. Wash your hands. But don’t stop hugging others. Open your heart to the grace of God and give up your fear. Heaven awaits the faithful. Death is not to be feared. Pray for those who are Godless that they may come to the understanding that there is no need to fear death when heaven is your next destination. You are free to love and live. You are free.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I know it was a little off the beaten path for me, but I felt the need to share some traditional faith, hope, and love. I trust all is well in your life and you can call on others when you need that extra boost. Call on me. I’ll be here.

Enjoy the fall weddings or winter weddings or whenever weddings. The union of two people starting out in life is glorious. Let’s celebrate new unions and new life.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

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What you can do with milk is my topic for today. There are lots of ways to use milk. It is a very versatile food. There is so much more than just drinking milk out of a glass. I know you didn’t drink it out of the jug, right?

As always, I want to take a minute and welcome all the new listeners and to say welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates New Farm Sign Scott just came in and showed me a picture of the new mailbox and farm sign set up. It looks great. I ordered a sign online from an Etsy shop. I found a guy who makes really great signs for a very reasonable price. He had lots of samples to choose from and an interactive website. Choose a design, type in your farm name and voila, you could see how the sign would look when completed. I was really pleased with the work and the quickness of shipment. I’m doubly pleased with Scott’s work and how beautiful it looks in real life. Now people can tell when they have reached the farm. The GPS brings you right to it, but we are 1,000 feet off the road behind a bunch of trees. It can be a little spooky driving off into the wilderness without a sign indicating you are on the right track.

Garden I took a stroll out into the garden this morning just to see how everything was going. I don’t go every day anymore. There just isn’t that much out there. And with the ground cloth, the weeds are almost non-existent. There are five beds that are completely empty now. All the beans are in except for the baby limas. I’ll wait until the first frost is forecast before pulling out all of those. I want to give them as much time as possible to mature.

Crowder Peas Today I picked a few more crowder peas from the garden. I really love these. I’m already looking forward to growing even more of these next year. I’ve talked about these beauties before. They are so, so, so easy to grow. I’ve never had disease, knock on wood. The only pests I have are aphids and they don’t affect the development of the peas. Next year I’m going to try putting the plants on a trellis. In the past, I’ve just let them grow all over the place. However, I want to try a trellis because I think it will make picking them so much easier. They get so tangled up. The branches are like half runners. I have been letting them grow into a jungle. We shall see how it goes with the trellis next year.

Peppers, Potatoes, Tomatoes The peppers just keep on going as well. I mentioned last week that I am working on creating pepper jam with the idea of selling it as Christmas gifts. They are going to be gorgeous. Red, green and yellow varieties. Hot, mild, and medium respectively.

More potatoes are sprouting out of the ground each day. But how long before the frost kills the plants? That’s an experiment in progress. I’ll get a really good idea of how late is too late for a fall planting of potatoes.

The tomatoes are blooming again. I’m just going to go out there and cut those down and put them on the compost pile. There is no way those tomatoes are going to make it to maturity.

Culinary Herbs The culinary herbs are going to need to be transplanted into pots. Eventually, they are going to go into a permanent herb garden. Don’t know if that will happen next year. Having them in pots for the winter will be fine though. Well, the basil and parsley are annuals. I’ll probably plant those in the garden again next year. For the rest, I really need to get cracking on designing exactly how I want that perennial herb garden planted.

Cows The cows got to try out their new loafing area. I talked about that in the last podcast when I was talking about the creamery. Scott completed the area with fencing and a very ingenious gate system. The girls spent some time in there getting to know the area. Cows are creatures of habit. They are very calm and peaceful animals – until you put something in front of them that they have never seen before. Scott is getting them used to being in this area. At some point we will even walk them through the milking stanchion area several times before using it regularly for milking. They need to be comfortable with it and that takes some time and training effort to accomplish.

The calves are getting fat with all the milk they are getting. At the end of this month I will begin to wean them off the milk. By that time, Virginia will have developed her rumen enough to be fully self-sufficient on grass. Wendell is already at that point but I can’t really wean him without weaning her. He would just push up under her neck and dislodge her mouth from the bottle. He already does that if he finishes his before she finishes hers. She does the same. They are quite greedy for that milk.

Creamery Not much has been happening here. There is another wall that has been completed, but most of Scott’s time went into completing the loafing area and tweaking it a bit here and there. He did get the attic wall up. There was some acrobatics involved in that job. He was working in and around other sections and obstacles like the stairway. But it’s done and he is injury-free. That is always a worry for me. I’m a worrier. I admit it. Prayer helps a lot.

Quail Those quail in the penthouse are doing really, really well. They only escape occasionally now. It’s like they have learned to run to the back of the cage when I open the door. Previously they seemed to only run toward the door and ended up falling out. Literally, they would fall out. Now they will sometimes fly out, but before they would run and their little legs were still churning as they unexpectedly fell to the ground. In two more weeks we will sort them out and decide which ones to keep and which ones go to freezer camp. We will be keeping quite a few extra through the winter this year.

Fruit I noticed the Muscatine grapes are disappearing. We have two grape vines, one gold and one kind of bronze. They both produced grapes this year. Last year only the gold one produced. Anyway, this morning most of the grapes were gone. Probably a raccoon.

What You Can Do With Milk I want to talk a little bit about what you can do with milk. You’ve heard me talk about making cheese but there is so much more.

Nature’s Perfect Food Milk is one of nature’s most perfect foods. Like all high-quality perishable foods, milk is best when it’s fresh. Homestead milk from your own cow varies in flavor due to the seasons and grasses being consumed by your animals but you can count on it being sweet, light, delicious and wholesome with a fresh taste. Commercial milk has a cooked flavor. Every once in a while I end up taking a sip of regular milk from the store and it never ceases to amaze me the difference in taste. It tastes cooked. I never noticed it until I started drinking milk straight from the cow. Now it stands out like a sore thumb. I love my fresh milk.

Knowing what you can do with milk is important when you have a lot of it coming in every day. It also gives some insight into how you can use your creativity to learn to make lots of great tasting milk treats. You don’t have to have your own cow to make most of this stuff. You can use milk you purchase in the grocery store. Except for ultra-pasteurized milk, all will work just fine. Ultra-pasteurized milk will not make cheese or yogurt or any other fermented milk product.

Cream Let’s start with cream. You get cream by skimming milk after it has been left standing for at least 24-hours. A caveat on what I just said about making things with store-bought products, cream these days generally has alginate added to artificially thicken it. It is quite harmless but adds to the demise of the flavor. Of course it is pasteurized as well so has that cooked flavor. Real sweet cream drizzled over apple pie is a delicacy everyone should try at least once in their life.

Personally, I like it with fruit. Think peaches and cream, strawberries and cream, blueberries and cream and so on. Yum, yum. Pour the cream over the fruit, stir it well, let it sit for an hour or so and you have a treat like no other.

Other cream treats include whipped cream and ice cream which usually has some milk but is mostly cream. Another treat you will want to try is clotted cream. That is a cream dish that is cooked in the oven. I have plans to do a podcast on just that topic in the near future. I also use some cream to make ½ and ½ for Scott’s coffee. I fill a quart jar with two cups of cream and then top it off with whole milk. That equates to a little more than ½ and ½ but I have found it to be a great blend.

Cream can be processed in other ways such as with making crème fraiche which is a type of cream cheese. I have a recipe for crème fraiche on the website. There will be a link in the show notes. You can make sour cream as well, I’ve just never been really successful with that so I’ll stick with crème fraiche.

The last thing I will mention about cream is making butter and ghee or clarified butter. The skimmed cream is placed in a butter churn and processed until the butter fat separates from the milk. Now you have butter and buttermilk. I’ve talked about this butter milk before. It is unlike the cultured buttermilk purchased in the store. This is the traditional buttermilk.

If you are making this traditional buttermilk, generally you set out whole milk overnight and let is sour slightly before churning the butter out of it. The resulting buttermilk was a treat my dad loved with all his heart. He talked of buttermilk poured over cornbread all the time. It was probably his favorite treat of all time.

The butter can now be packaged and frozen for a long time or used as needed. I keep mine out on the counter so it is always soft. If you do this, you will need to use it quickly (as I do) or it will go rancid. You can add Vitamin E to help keep it from going rancid, but ours never lasts that long. There are also tools called butter bells that help keep butter fresh on the counter. The butter is put in the bell and then set upside down on a dish of cold water. That keeps the air from reaching the butter and oxidizing the fat causing it to go rancid.

Ghee is made by further processing the butter. I have a recipe for ghee on the website as well. Basically the butter is melted and cooked on the stovetop until the little bit of milk proteins still left in the butter is separated from the fat. Clarified butter is reached as soon as the separation occurs and ghee is made by continuing to cook the butter until the protein bits are browned. Ghee is very shelf stable without refrigeration. I have some in jars on my canned food shelves right now.

Fermented Milk Products Let’s move on from cream to other milk products. All of these require some type of fermentation. The buttermilk and crème fraiche I talked about are also fermented products. However, cheese and yogurt are probably the most common fermented milk products.

Yogurt I love making yogurt with our milk. It is so easy and so yummy. I get so many compliments on it. “It’s so creamy”, they say. That’s because it is not made from powdered milk like the stuff you buy in the store. Not only is that product made from powdered milk, but they also add stuff to thicken it.

I make mine by heating the milk to a just below boiling, around 180 to 190 degrees, then quickly cooling it. This destabilizes the proteins. Once a temp of 117 or so is reached, I add in yogurt with active cultures at a rate of one tablespoon per ½ gallon of whole milk. I use my Cosori multi-function pressure cooker to complete the process. In eight hours I have delicious and nutritious yogurt. I have that yogurt recipe on the website as well.

Kefir The last idea for what you can do with milk I am going to talk about today is kefir.

Kefir is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt that is made from kefir grains, a specific type of mesophilic symbiotic culture. The drink originated in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Russia, where it is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep milk with kefir grains. My kefir recipe can be found on our website. All of these recipes will have links in the show notes.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. We always have something going on at the homestead and I love sharing with all of you. Things will be winding down for the winter soon. Topics for winter conversation will be varied. I look forward to it.

I hope you enjoyed the information on various ideas for what you can do with milk. I didn’t talk about cheese because the previous podcast was about types of cheese. Refer to that one for ideas on using milk for cheese making. Check out all of my recipes on our website. All of my recipes are printable. Let me know how they work for you.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

Recipes: * Crème Fraiche * Ghee * Home Made Yogurt * Traditional Kefir

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

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Today I’ll be talking about types of cheese. What I mean by that is things like fresh, aged, hard, soft, semi-soft and so on. Our specialty is semi-hard and hard aged cheeses, but there are many other types of cheese out there. So how are they different and how are they the same?

But first, I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I cannot say how much I appreciate you all. What would I do without you? Thank you so much for being here.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Fall is arriving in full force right now. The weather has cooled. I expect the leaves to show their glorious colors soon. It is the time of year when tourists come from all over to participate in the magnificent color painted all across the Appalachian Mountains. This year the season began way up in the northeast around the first week of September. As of this podcast in October 2020, we are at near peak color. Between now and the next seven days, the color will reach its height. In two weeks, it will be done and past.

Green Leaves How about a little leaf trivia and 5th grade science review? Without the presence of Chlorophyll in the leaf, the bright golds, reds, yellow, and browns would be the natural colors seen year-round. Chlorophyll is key to a plant turning sunlight into glucose. Trees then feed on the glucose. When the leaves are saturated with Chlorophyll cells, they appear green to the eye.

Orange, Red and Yellow Leaves There are other compounds in leaves that determine their color. Carotenoids, Anthocyanins, and Flavonols. Beta-Carotene is probably the most common carotenoid present in leaves. While absorbing blue and green light, it them reflects yellow and red light from the sun. These leaves appear orange. These are much more clearly visible as the sunlight and subsequent production of Chlorophyll decrease in the fall.

Anthocyanins actually increase in autumn. They provide the red color. Anthocyanins prolong the life of the leaf on the tree.

Finally, Flavonols are always present in leaves. These are the same flavonols that make egg yolks yellow. While they are always present in the leaves, you won’t see the yellow color until the production of Chlorophyll begins to slow.

Brown Leaves The last step with the fall leaves is for the tree to close off the veins that carry water and nutrients to and from leaves. A layer of new cells forms at the base of the leaf stem. Water and nutrients no longer flow to and from the leaf. The leaf becomes brown, dies and eventually falls gracefully to the ground. If left in place, the leaves break down and create a rich humus on the ground. It holds moisture and nutrients for the trees and other plants.

That’s the cycle. Pretty cool isn’t it? Nature at its finest.

Let’s talk about the animals.

Cows I talked about our new heifer, Rosie, last time. She is doing great. What a great addition to our herd.

Buttercup is still not pregnant. At this point, we have given up on her for this season. It’s important in a dairy operation that the cows all give birth within a relatively short window of time. That way they can all be bred back at the same time, give birth near the same time again, and so on. They will be “in milk” at the same time. We need that consistency to be able to plan our milk herd shares and to have enough milk to make larger batches of cheese for our cheese herd shares.

Buttercup is beyond that desired window. At this point, if she bred true today, she could not give birth before the end of June. Ideally, all of the cows are bred in June and July so birthing that late just doesn’t work for us. We will try again next year with our additional knowledge. We are still very much in the learning curve in raising cattle. Who knew it took so much knowledge and experience?

Sheep and Goats We are not breeding the goats this year. We are down to 14 goat does. And we will be thinning those out over the next few years. Ideally, we will get down to maybe four to six does at the most.

The sheep on the other hand are nearing their peak fertile period and we will be breeding some of them. Currently, we have a dozen ewes and/or ewe lambs. Based on our discussions so far, we have decided to breed the four older ewes. That will give us anywhere from four to eight lambs in the spring. Their breeding cycle will start the first of November. So in about three weeks.

Quail The quail babies are doing really well. They have a few more weeks before we thin them out as well. We will be keeping quite a few extra hens and perhaps a few extra roosters through the winter just to make sure we have enough breeding stock to get started again in the spring. I don’t have a final count on that. There are just too many at the moment to tell which ones we will keep and which not.

Creamery The dairy inspector came out and spent a couple of hours with Scott. They went over our proposed processes and mapped out what still needs to be done to be in compliance with USDA inspection requirements.

Scott also added another covered area for storage. I didn’t realize that he planned on this until he started digging new footers. Originally, he was going to do it later. But in the end, he decided to just go ahead and add it on. Otherwise, he would have to redo the roofing on that end of the building. So nearly all of the north wall has a 12-foot (I think that’s right) roof over it. Lots of room to store equipment.

On the west end of the building is the barn. And even farther west is what Scott calls the loafing area. It also has a roof covering. He completed an elaborate fenced in area with multiple gates that will allow for better movement of the animals as well as creating a multipurpose area for collecting, sheltering and working with them outside of the barn and milking parlor.

Garden The garden is definitely winding down. I still have lots of culinary herbs. Many of the plants are still green, but I just need to get in there and clear them out – compost them. The tomato plants, the crowder peas, what’s left of the green beans and so on. The sunflower stalks need to be cleared out as well. I’m going to let the potatoes go for a little longer, though there will not be many of them. Still, there will be a few, I think.

The celery is ready to harvest. I hope to have some of that at the farmer’s market this weekend.

The pepper plants will simply be cut down in the end. When the first frost is predicted, I will pick everything I can and that will be the end. I’m making pepper jelly right now. I’ll have that at the farmer’s market as well. My plan is to have it all ready for the Christmas markets in late November and early December. Some will be red. Some will be yellow and some will be green. The red will be very hot, the yellow medium hot and the green will be made from sweet peppers.

Types of Cheese I’m going to go over a few different types of cheese and what differentiates them one from another. I’ll go from the one with the most moisture to the one with the least. The moisture content determines texture and type of rind that will develop.

Fresh Cheese These cheeses will typically be 19-24% fat. They have no rind at all. Fresh cheeses have a very high moisture content. Their texture can be stringy like mozzarella or mousse-like as in cream cheese or ricotta. When pickled in salt as with Feta, the curd is firm but crumbly. There are lots of variations with fresh cheeses that include wrappings such as leaves, coverings of herbs or being rolled in ash. Typically, a fresh cheese will be bright white and quite mild in lemony or lactic flavors.

Soft White Rind Cheese Think of Camembert, Brie or chevre. These cheeses grow a fine white crusty rind of penicillin candidum mold. This ripens the cheese and prevents it from drying out. The rind is mushroomy and the center paste is very soft. A really good camembert will melt at room temperature. Literally it will ooze out of the rind when you cut it. I love this stuff.

There are also double and triple cream versions.

Semi-Soft Cheese Examples of semi-soft cheese are edam, reblochon and raclette. Typically, these cheeses develop a fine to thick gray-brown rind or an orange and sticky rind. The curd is lightly pressed to remove whey and create a rubbery, elastic texture. They attract a variety of gray, white and brown molds. The molds are brushed off regularly building a fine leathery rind. Edam has a rind that is barely formed and is generally milky, buttery and sweet. Thicker, denser rinds taste much stronger, more earthy. Think stinky cheese. Sometimes they are “washed” in some type of brine and sometimes wine or beer. This encourages the orange, sticky, bacteria to develop. That produces a much more pungent flavor and aroma.

Hard Cheese These are the driest cheeses. The fat content is higher, around 28-34%. They are pressed for hours and hours to remove the whey and compact the curd. They also produce more complex and stronger flavors.

Our traditional cheddar is wrapped in cheesecloth or waxed to prevent it from drying out too much. Our alpine style is soaked in brine to begin the rind. These cheeses are stored for months at least and sometimes years, the flavor deepening and expanding with age. All sorts of molds are attracted; white, blue, gray, pink or yellow. They are brushed off during ripening which results in a thick, smooth and polished rind on our alpine style. The cheddar is also brushed off but ends with a much thinner rind. A parmesan rind can be very thick indeed.

That’s a very brief overview of types of cheese. There is so much more that goes into making one cheese or another, but those are some standard categories you can begin with to better understand the luscious art of cheese.

Heritage and tradition are very important to us so our cheese are based on time-honored European cheesemaking methods that we have adapted to our local conditions in southwestern Virginia. We embrace the changes in the seasons that lead to delicious and discernible variations in our cheeses.

Our cows graze all day on pasture and live a peaceful life. We practice integrity with all of our farming practices and give unending attention to our livestock.

The taste of each of our handcrafted cheeses reflects the animal’s health, diverse pastures, clean water, and soil minerals that go into the milk. All of our cheese is made with raw milk, completely hand made and slowly aged.

I have openings for raw milk cheese herd shares. Let me know if you are interested. You own part of our herd and can receive the benefits of the cheese produced. A half share provides you with about a pound of cheese per month and a full share – two pounds of cheese per month.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I hope you learned something about fall leaves. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to get out there and spend some time in God’s creation and soak up the vibes of those fabulous once a year, brief window of time, leaves. It’s truly a magical and glorious time.

The homestead is humming along; the animals are happy and healthy. The creamery gets closer and closer to completion with each passing day. Thank you so much for allowing me to share this adventure with you.

Types of cheeses is a fun topic and I only touched on it in this brief podcast. There is so much more we could talk about. Let me know if you are interested in our raw milk cheese herd shares and pass the info along to anyone else you know that may be interested. We live to share the health benefits of our hand made products. Hope to see you soon.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. Also, please share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

Website www.peacefulheartfarm.com

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Fall is in the air here in southwest Virginia. For us, that means the air is much cooler. The leaves are still quite green, but that will be changing soon. Fall in the Appalachian Mountains is the height of the tourist season. What will it be like this year? Who knows? But the leaves don’t care. They will do their thing and it will be beautiful.

Let me take a brief minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you all so much for your patronage. I appreciate you all so much. This show is for you.

So where have I been and what’s going on at the homestead?

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates You might have noticed I haven’t published a FarmCast episode in a couple of weeks. The first time I missed because I simply did not have the time. And last week I was in tremendous pain. I still am in fact. It’s nothing serious but it is painful. Somewhere in my spine about the level of the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th rib I have some arthritic impingement on a nerve. I’m not sure which one but I am sure that it really, really hurts. Pain can really drag you down. It’s exhausting. My ability to think clearly is diminished and so on. This morning I got up determined to go on with my life and so here I am. Let’s talk about what’s happening on the homestead.

Cows The biggest news I think is that we have added yet another animal to our homestead. She is a beautiful bred heifer named Rosie. We needed another milk cow for the spring and so the search began for a Normande bred heifer. The bad news is that there were none to be found. The good news is we never give up and just moved on to looking for another breed that had A2A2 and good milking genetics. We found Rosie.

Rosie is a Jersey so now we have two of them. I know, I know. We were going to sell Butter at some point so we would end up with only Normandes. So how did we come to add another one that we will also sell in the future? Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. We need milk in the spring. That means we had to get whatever was available. Rosie is adorable and a great addition to our homestead. Who knows, maybe one of you will buy her when we have built up our Normande stock. You will definitely know everything about her life and health if you listen to every episode.

The rest of the girls are doing fine. Violet and Buttercup came into heat yet again. So we know they were still not bred. The best option at this point was to put the bull that we have in with them and see if he can do the job that the AI is not accomplishing. We shall see in a few weeks if he was successful. So far it looks like Cloud, Claire and Butter are all bred but we won’t know for sure until the vet checks them. That will happen next month. We were going to do it this month but now that we have Rosie, we decided to wait a little longer to make sure we can check her as well.

I must say it has been a very frustrating breeding season for us. But that is just another day on the homestead. Challenges abound.

Quail The last batch of baby quail chicks are doing well. They are in the penthouse now and getting bigger every day. We are going to keep all of the hens and maybe a rooster or two from this batch. Yes fall is in the air and this winter we will be experimenting a little bit more with adding more light to their cages so that they might lay an egg or two throughout the winter. Last winter, once they stopped laying, they didn’t give one single egg until later in March. Then the egg production bounced back to full capacity within a week. With the added hens and a little more light, we might just get a few eggs. We shall see.

Donkeys I know the donkeys are going to need another manicure soon. That’s always an unpleasant task but needs to be done nonetheless. It’s not so much that it is unpleasant as it is that Scott has to get into very uncomfortable positions for extended periods of time in order to get the job done. But like so many tasks on the homestead, it must be done whether it is comfortable or not. Now that I think about it, that’s not so different than cleaning house. Some of those tasks are much less pleasant than others. Cleaning the bathtub comes to mind.

The donkeys had a good time a couple of weeks ago when a customer brought two of her children along when picking up her beef. I put together a spontaneous homestead tour and the donkeys were central to that. The young lady was the most interested in the animals. She even walked out into the field and braved the various moon pies to get a close up encounter with Virginia, Luna and Wendell. She only got a very brief time to lay hands on the calves before they decided to be elsewhere. But the donkeys – that’s a different story. Donkeys are very, very friendly beasts. They love human attention. Once they got over the strangeness of a person they had never seen before, they were grooving on the affection coming their way.

Sheep and Goats The sheep and goats are doing well. We got yet another call from a neighbor a week or so ago that one of the goats was out on the road. I think I’ve mentioned that one doe that goes in and out whenever she chooses. So far, she hasn’t gotten herself run over and she’s back with the herd again.

The breeding ram that we have is a bottled-fed lamb from last year. He has four companions that were born this year. All of them are now in the field with the calves. That means I get to see them every day, twice a day when I go out to give the calves their bottles of milk. It’s such a pleasure to see that Lambert grew up to be such a great ram. His dad just keeled over and died last winter. We have no idea why. It happens. But Lambert will pick up the slack beginning in just over a month. Did I mention that fall is in the air? That means sheep breeding is closing in fast.

Now that I think about it, I’m going to have to decide which ewes get bred and which not. Those chosen for breeding will need to be separated from the rest. Should we do six or eight this year? Last year it was eight, though the plan is for six. Eight worked out pretty well though. We shall see.

Garden I had a friend come over and pick a whole bunch of tomatoes to take home and make sauce. I gave her everything I had and got some great blueberry jam in exchange. We are both very happy. It is likely that I will not even grow tomatoes next year. I have canned 35 quarts of diced tomatoes and a couple dozen jars of tomato sauce. What will I grow if I don’t grow tomatoes? What will I grow in their place?

Potatoes The potatoes were apparently planted too late to make a fall crop. I’ll remember that for next year. When it pops up on the calendar, get it done. Don’t wait another four weeks or more before getting them in the ground. Out of about 85 or 90 potato starts, less than 10 have peeked their little leaves above the ground. The cooler days are great for growing good potatoes, but it also means the frost is coming soon. Oh well, there is always next year.

Sunflowers We harvested all of the sunflowers and they are currently hanging up in the attic over the commercial kitchen and cheesemake rooms. I keep thinking about going up there to see how they are doing. But if I do that, it means that I will then have yet another task on my To-Do list that will need to get done. If I procrastinate, they will still be there and the tasks will still need to be done but I can keep my list shorter for just a little while longer. The illusion of being caught up with all of my tasks is maintained. That’s right. I can fool myself with the best of them.

Peas The crowder peas are finally slowing down. I will likely plant even more of these gems next year. They are so easy to grow and we love them. It looks like next year the garden may be really heavy on beans and peas. I also plan to grow English peas. Perhaps even two crops of them. Green peas must be started early, before it gets hot. And likewise, this cooler weather is ideal for growing a second crop.

Beans I’m pleased with the black, red, and white beans that I grew this year. The red and white beans put on bumper crops that are just now getting ready to complete their cycle. The black beans put on one crop and then died back. The other two died back some but then came back strong with a second, somewhat smaller, crop of great beans.

I only had two beds of green beans and could have used many more. This is the one thing that people ask for at the farmer’s market. I’ve heard that there is no money in them at the market but I will grow some extra next year to see why that is so.

Celery One thing that I have in the garden that I have rarely talked about is the celery. It’s coming along now and I’m getting excited about harvesting some of it. This is another crop that looks like it won’t produce very much income, but I will bring a few to the market anyway. Mostly I just love to share the fruits of my labor. I will have plenty for myself as well. These lovely plants will get chopped up and put in the dehydrator. I’ve already used up everything I had from last year. There was a little mishap just about harvest time last year when the calves got the garden and ate most of the celery. This year, I’m looking forward to building up my stores of dried celery.

Culinary Herbs This was my first year to grow a significant amount of culinary herbs. It has been a success for the most part. I’ve had lots of extras to sell at market and I certainly have plenty of fresh herbs for cooking and lots of herbs to dry and store for later. This is an area that I want to expand on in the future. However, the next step there is to create a permanent location. So many of them are perennials or annuals and biennials that will reseed themselves. They need a permanent location and, dare I say, an aesthetically pleasing area known as my herb garden. But where? Where is the perfect permanent location? We shall see.

Peppers The last thing I’m going to talk about is the peppers. I love growing peppers. The problem with peppers is that just a couple of plants can produce so many peppers. I’m thinking of the hot ones right now. What do I do with so many serrano peppers? Anyone got suggestions?

Canning, Drying, Selling at Market Some of the things I’m doing with all of them so far is canning, drying and selling a few at the market. I’ve canned some of those great banana papers that go so well on sandwiches. And the jalapenos are also great on sandwiches. And what about a mixed pepper with a blend of hot and mild peppers. That one didn’t come out as hot as I would have liked. I’m going to do another batch of those and add more serrano peppers to the recipe. After all, I have a ton of them.

Cayenne Hanging up in my kitchen are three strings of cayenne peppers, about 2 or 3-feet each. They are gorgeous. I simply threaded a sewing needle and threaded them one after another on the string, put a fancy knot on each end so they won’t slip off and hung them up to dry. One strand is already pretty dry and the other two are well on their way. I don’t know if I will ever use that much cayenne pepper, but they sure make great kitchen decorations. I smile every time I look at them.

Pepper Jam Another experiment I am doing this year is making pepper jam. I have all the ingredients and I have the task popping up on my calendar for a couple of weeks now. Alas, I haven’t gotten around to completing the task. But soon, very soon, that’s going to happen. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I didn’t get to the creamery and the updates there. That will have to wait until next time. There is some great progress going on there.

I hope fall is in the air for you as well and you enjoyed the virtual farm tour this week. The trials and tribulations of raising animals and vegetables are so worth it for us. We left the corporate world nearly four full years ago and have never looked back. Thank you so much for joining me as we make our journey. I hope you got a few ideas for yourself and how you might add a little bit of the homestead feel to your life.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Quail chicks hatched – WOW!! How did I accomplish an 80% hatch rate? Well, I do follow specific procedures to ensure a better result. These procedures are working. I’ll talk about it today. Will it work for other eggs? I don’t know but you might try it and see if it works for your chickens or ducks or turkeys.

Before I get started on that, I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you for turning in for the podcast. I truly appreciate you all so much. Thank you.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Garden Today I’m going to start with the garden. Just this morning Scott and I harvested the rest of the sunflowers. All that is left out there are various heights of stalks with nothing on top. I see a bunch of tall green sticks with a few leaves. These latest sunflowers will be added to rest to be thoroughly dried. Once dried, we will get to pluck out all of the seeds. They will get an additional period of drying in a single layer just to make sure that they are completely dried and cured. Then I’ll store them in a mason jar. Well, I say A mason jar. More likely it will be many mason jars. I do have lots of half gallon jars and in a pinch I might use some of the gallon jars. I like to keep those for milk, but milking will end in a couple of months. If I can wait that long before getting into those seeds. We shall see how that goes.

I picked a few green beans this morning while Scott was moving the newly cut sunflowers inside the building. The Mexican bean beetles have decimated the plants. Likely this is the last bit of green beans for this year. The plants may come back but by the time they do and recover enough to bloom, the weather will be turning cold. It was a good year. In years past the beetles have taken over before I got the first picking. This year the plants were so healthy it took a while for the pests to arrive. Next year I may even try to control them and keep the beans going just a bit longer. I did little to stop them this year besides squish and squish and squish. And I didn’t do that every day. If I had, I would have controlled them a bit better. But I planted much more than we needed and am delighted to share with nature. When gardening without chemical pesticides it’s always best to grow enough for us and for them.

The bumper crop of purple hulled crowder peas keeps going and going and going. I canned nine pint-sized jars last week. A couple of days ago I picked another batch that will likely give me another half dozen jars of peas. When I picked that batch, I left behind at least as many still green to be picked in another few days. And to top it off, the plants are blooming again. I love growing this crop. They are very pest and disease resistant. Aphids to attack them and the ants farm the aphids. I just work around both of them and enjoy my peas. The plants always perform well with little attention. And every year they have bloomed and bloomed and bloomed through the season. As I said, they are very easy to grow and very tasty to boot.

I planted fall potatoes last week. We shall see if it was too late in the season. It will be days before I see any sign of plants. And weeks before any potatoes are produced. Will the frost kill them before that? We shall see.

Most of the culinary herbs are doing well. The basil, parsley, oregano and thyme are all doing particularly well. All of my cilantro died when I wasn’t looking. I don’t know what happened. I went out there one day and noticed they were all dead. There is always next year. I have plans for starting them inside and caring for them a little better than I did this year. The rosemary is still struggling along. I had to try several times just to get anything to sprout in the spring. Now they are growing very, very slowly. I may need to do more research on soil composition for them. I can’t think of anything else it could be.

Lastly the tomatoes. About five or six days ago I picked five 5-gallon buckets of tomatoes. I cleaned them up and put them on the ripening shelves. This morning I pulled out eight or ten that were rotting. Tomorrow is a big tomato processing day. Well, today is a big tomato processing day also. I’ll get to that in a minute. This very large batch of tomatoes will all be turned into diced tomatoes, I think. That will be the quickest and easiest method of preservation of such a large number of tomatoes. Well canning them whole would be the quickest, but I don’t use a lot of whole tomatoes. In fact, I don’t remember ever using whole tomatoes that I didn’t have to cut up when I opened the jar.

I’m estimating at least a couple dozen jars of diced tomatoes will be processed tomorrow. Perhaps more. Today, I’m cooking down tomato sauce. It’s ready to can. As soon as I finish this, I’ll get in there and start filling jars and getting that water bath canner going. Actually, I have two water bath canners that will hold seven quart jars each. I’ll be using both of them simultaneously. It’s going to be a late night.

While cutting the sunflowers this morning I took a quick look at the tomatoes. Just about the time that I get these hundreds and hundreds of lovely tomatoes processed, another batch will be ready to pick. Perhaps not another five buckets. Maybe only four this time. We shall see.

Cows and Pastures The grass is growing. The cows are loving it. All day, that’s all they do. Wander around eating and eating and eating. After a while, they go lay down in the shade and begin chewing their cud. Then later in the day, they might go out again for another round of cropping the grass. What a peaceful life.

Will we need hay this winter? I need to ask Scott. Usually by this time of the year we have hay stockpiled for the winter. But not this year. I wonder what’s going on? Is this planned? An inquiring mind wants to know.

Goats, Sheep and Lambs Everything is still going very well with the ovine animals. Did you know that is the species term for sheep and goats? Ovine. Bovine are cattle. Porcine are pigs. Equine are horses and donkeys. Ovine are sheep and goats. That’s your trivia for today.

All of our ovine are doing very well and I expect that to continue. The deep grass in the pastures keeps the parasites down. I’ve talked about this before. It’s easy to have a healthy herd of goats and a healthy flock of sheep if the pastures are maintained and the animals are rotated regularly to keep them from eating too close to the ground. That’s the secret.

Creamery Creamery tasks are moving along. More details are being accomplished. There are many. Hurricane straps, closing in the gable walls, and soon to come, finishing filling in the cracks between the blocks. When doing the block work, Scott left many blocks with the spaces between each block was not filled in completely. There are a lot of these places. You can see through the cracks. Before the cold weather sets in, Scott intends to have all of these openings filled. The cold weather affects how the mortar sets up. The plan is to have that finished before it turns cold. Our first frost date is October 15th. And can you believe it is already September. Time flies when you are having fun.

The Quail Chicks Hatched This is the last batch for this year. And it is by far the best batch. If you’ve listened to previous podcasts, you know that I put 80 eggs into the incubator. The normal average hatch rate is 70%. That means I could expect 56 eggs to hatch – on average. We had 64 eggs hatch. That is 80%; an unprecedented hatch rate. Now to be fair, we have lost two and may lose a third. But still. It is an incredible accomplishment. I achieved a 65% hatch rate, time before last. Last time only 64% hatch rate. Now that I am looking at those numbers, I don’t know if the 80% hatch rate is my procedures or luck. I used the same procedures for all batches.

The procedures are simple. I collect the eggs and put them points down into our egg cartons. Then I spray all of the shells with Listerine. That’s right Listerine. Don’t wash the shells. They have a protective coating on them that keeps bacteria out. I use the Listerine to deter the bacteria on the surface. The next step I take is to keep them cool but not cold. Of course, we have the advantage of having the nice cheese cooler where the temperature is kept at 52 to 55 degrees. It is the perfect temperature for eggs. The last thing that I do is tilt the egg cartons maybe 10 or 15 degrees from level. Each day I add new eggs and then tilt all of the cartons the other way. Each day the eggs are tilted in the opposite direction. It keeps the insides from sticking. I collect eggs for seven days and then put them all into the incubator. Some people advise spraying again with Listerine just before putting them in the incubator. I have not done that. Perhaps I will try it next year. What I am doing seems to be working really well so far.

Now, I want to go over the current quail chicks situation. Initially, 63 eggs hatched and one didn’t make it out of the incubator. Two others hatched the day we moved the bulk of the little guys out to the brooder. Again, they have to come out of the incubator within three of hatching. The first four hatched on Friday at 16 days. Eighteen days is the average time for hatching quail eggs. We usually hear the first peeps on day 17. So, this was the first novel thing that happened with this batch at 16 days. Three days later, we moved 60 quail chicks to the brooder. There were two chicks that hatched just a little bit earlier in the day. I judged them both to be too weak to move out. They stayed in the brooder until this morning.

The first night in the brooder we lost one chick and then another this morning bringing the total to 58 in the brooder. The two that were left in the incubator were definitely strong enough this morning and I moved them out with the others. We are back to 60 in the brooders. Two brooders with 30 chicks each. From where did the 64th chick come.

After moving those last two out with the others, I went back to clear the egg shells out of the incubator and I found another egg just hatching. I heard him peeping and found the egg with the crack in it. I’m not sure he will make it. The little guy looks to be having trouble standing, but we shall see. I helped him out of the shell and have been keeping an eye on him all day. The membrane inside the shell was stuck to one of his wings and I had to gently pulled it free. That is what happens when you open and close the incubator while they are hatching. The membrane kind of collapses and shrinks over them. He is looking better but I won’t know for a day or two whether he will actually make it.

This batch of quail chicks has been yet another adventure. The time frame from first peeps to today is five days. That’s also unusual. A full seven days will have passed before this last little guy goes out with the others. Life on the homestead is always bringing new surprises.

Final Thoughts That’s all I have for today. I hope you enjoyed the latest quail story. These birds are so wonderful. And the birth cycle is quick so I get to see it a lot. New life is always fascinating and quail chicks give the opportunity for multiple experiences each year.

The rest of the homestead is moving along in these last days of summer. Soon the season will change and the routine will change. I’ll keep you posted.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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It’s harvest season. I’m overwhelmed with tomatoes. Bumper crops are coming in at a time when I don’t really have time to address them. What’s a homesteader to do? That’s today’s topic.

Welcome new listeners. Welcome back veteran homestead-loving regulars. Thanks for tuning in today. I appreciate you all so much. You make this podcast happen. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Cows Well, we have to make a decision. It’s a tough decision. But sometimes that’s what happens on a homestead. This is the first year that we have milked Cloud. She is only ¾ Normande and that last quarter is angus. Because of those genetics, she does not produce near the amount of milk that the others do. Additionally, she kicks. I mean she really kicks. And she is very quick. Scott has received many injuries over the past few months.

She didn’t start out that way. When we started milking her, she was fine with it. No problems. Then her hoof started growing very long. She was limping a bit. We talked to the vet. It’s not so simple to trim a cow’s hoof. Long story short, she began kicking when Scott would get anywhere near her back leg on that side. Fine. It’s just as easy to work from the other side. That worked for a few weeks. But recently, she started kicking again. Now we are out of sides from which to work. The end result of the long hoof was that it actually broke off before we found anyone to take care of it. But I don’t want to try milking her on that side. She is just too skittish now.

We tried everything to make her more comfortable. Nothing worked. In fact, it only got worse and worse and worse. It has gotten so bad that we simply cannot milk her anymore. Scott cannot even get the inflations on her. At this point she has become useless as a producing part of our homestead. She will have to go. It won’t be right away, but the decision has been made. She has been with us since 2012.

Her future looks like this. She will have a calf in the spring. We have no intention of trying to milk her. We hope she has a heifer calf. That will at least add something. Anyway, her calf will stay with her, just as Luna did, until weaning.

Usually we bottle feed all of our calves. But what happened with her last year was she didn’t give birth until after we had dried up all of the other cows. Basically, she gave birth in our off season. We don’t milk in the winter. We knew she would not produce a lot of milk anyway. We just left her and Luna to do their thing with each other. Then when we started back up with milking in the spring, Luna was five months old and we weaned her. Cloud was put into the milking rotations. As I said, everything was fine in the beginning. She had no problem. But now . . . well every animal must add something to the homestead. We only have so much grass for the cows. They all must produce calves. But more importantly, they must produce milk. That means they need to comfortable being milked.

Well enough of that. What about the sheep?

Sheep We have our flock ram and several young boys running around together with the young bulls we are growing out. It was easy enough to move the bulls to another paddock, but the sheep just kept running in circles. The way we have pasture number five set up is with an area at the end like a funnel. The funnel leads to the corral area or to the travel lane which leads to the other fields. Every time Scott got them down the hill and headed in the right direction, they would stop just a few feet from going into the funnel. It’s quite wide. Maybe twelve feet or so. It’s not like they were cramped. And it’s quite open through there. But they were having none of it. They quickly circled around behind Scott and he had to start over. Go over the hill, round them up again, drive them up and over the hill and down the other side to the funnel. He did that about four times before giving up.

The next day, I tried to help. We moved two of the donkeys, Sweet Pea and Johnny, over there. The sheep will easily follow the donkeys. They are very aware that these are their protectors. And sure enough, we moved the donkeys over the hill, connected with the sheep and turned the whole crew around. The sheep immediately followed the donkeys. They followed them all the way over the hill and down the other side. Sweet Pea and Johnny immediately went into the funnel and into the travel lane. The sheep stopped dead, then began looking for an escape. I don’t know why they don’t want to go down that travel lane but I decided immediately that repeating this three or four more times was not what I wanted to do with my morning. We gave up and Scott began thinking up Plan C.

Plan C is currently in operation. There is a gate between paddock five and six. It hasn’t been used in several years. Scott opened it up and we hope they will move over to the next field on their own. We will check in a day or so. If they have not moved, we will again try to herd them. Perhaps it will work this time. That gate is nowhere near the travel lane funnel. But you can’t really tell what will happen. Sheep are notorious for running right by an open gate without seeing it.

Quail Okay, now it’s time for quail talk. Are you ready? Tomorrow the eggs that are in the incubator go into lock down. Just a short refresher on what that means. I open the incubator, take all 80 of the eggs out of the automatic egg turner and lay them on the bottom of the incubator. The cover goes back on, not to be lifted until three days after the first chick hatches. Saturday is the day we expect to hear the first peeps. This never gets old. Every birth is an event on our homestead. With the cows, sheep and goats it happens once per year. But with the quail it happens quite a few times per year. Every couple of months we are starting a new batch of eggs.

I have to say one more thing about the quail. The current batch living in the penthouse are quite rambunctious. More so than the last two batches. It is consistent that the first few days that they are up there, every time I open the door, some of them try to jump out. They don’t know they are jumping out. They just jump and out the door they go. Sometimes they just walk off the edge. It’s comical. Once they jump out or fall out, I have to go catch them up and put them back in the cage.

With the first few batches, they stopped jumping out after four or five days. They learned about their new environment and where the “safe” places were located. I would open the cage and they would run there, straight to the back of the cage or into the box on the side. The current group has a few slow learners. Just yesterday, in the pouring rain, I opened the cage door and out jumped one of the hens. Well, it was one of those cases where she hopped forward like she was going to go around me, only there was no floor under her and she fell to the ground.

Even though it was raining, I went out without any rain gear. Scott had the rain poncho as he was bringing in the cows from the field. The rain would pour down and then lighten up for a while, then pour down again. I was out working with the quail during a time when it had lightened up. Only it started up again before I finished my tasks. I was going to just deal with it and quickly get back inside. But then the hen got out. Scott was right next door now under cover in the milking shed. I went over and confiscated the rain poncho and headed back out to catch up that hen.

Now she is missing in action. And being a quail, her coloring makes her blend in with the environment. I’m slogging around in the rain trying to scare her into moving. It took a bit of time but I finally located her, scooped her up and deposited her back into the safety of her cage. I hope she wasn’t too upset. The hens are reaching an age to start laying eggs. I expect to see the first one in the next few days. But stress like that can cause a hen to stop laying eggs for a few days. So likely for a first-time layer, it would delay laying eggs also. We shall see.

Harvest Season Okay, it’s harvest season. What do I mean by that? Haven’t I been harvesting veggies for quite a while? Well yes, I have. But prior to the “harvest season”, it was a batch of beans here, a batch of peas there. Lot’s of peppers on the next day and so on. It was all spread out.

The current situation is that the sunflowers needed to be harvested before the birds found them and before the seeds started falling out all over the ground. The green beans and crowder peas put on a bumper crop, the fall potatoes needed to planted and the tomatoes – the hundreds and hundreds of lovely tomatoes, steadily ripened on the vines.

I just canned 13 quarts of tomato juice. That was two 5-gallon buckets full of tomatoes. I talked about that last week. They literally got canned yesterday. I had them cored, cooked and run through the food mill within a day. Wait I take that back. I got them to the cooked stage on day one, put them in the fridge overnight and ran them through the food mill the next day. I stored the resulting juice in gallon jugs in the kitchen refrigerator. Five of them. I started with nearly five gallons of juice. I cooked it down yesterday to about three and a half gallons before getting it into the water bath canner. Those jars were in the fridge for a couple of days. The whole project took quite a while. Five or six days, I think. There were so many other things going on while that juice sat in the fridge to two days, maybe three. I lost track.

The sunflowers got harvested. Some of them anyway. Maybe a couple dozen. They are so gorgeous. I’m so pleased with this project done simply for the pleasure of it. It truly was and is fun. Today, Scott got the flower heads tied together in batches of three and hung them up to complete the drying process. There are a lot more out there waiting to be cut. That’s on the to-do list.

What else is on the to-do list? Picking green beans and crowder peas, again. I just canned eight quarts of green beans today from a bunch we picked a few days ago. We ate the crowder peas picked at the same time. These are bumper crops and not quite as big as earlier in the season. And I sold all of the earlier crops at the farmer’s market. I may get a few cans of crowder peas. We shall see. I fully expect to get another eight or ten jars of green beans canned. The Mexican bean beetles have finally arrived, but the beans are already set. I just need to go pick them before they get too big. And the crowder peas will dry on the vine if I wait too long. That’s for tomorrow.

The big task for tomorrow is picking the tomatoes. This is the overwhelming part. The heart of harvest season.

I finally got the juice canned from the first batch. Today I got the second batch – again, two 5-gallon buckets – of tomatoes ready for the food mill. They have been cored, cut into pieces and cooked for about 20 minutes. It required two 5-gallon stainless steel pots to get them to this stage. Those pots will go into the refrigerator tonight just as the previous batch did. I was surprised that I didn’t lose more of these tomatoes. Last week I talked about picking them just as they began to ripen. I put them on shelves to finish ripening. Two days or three days ago I needed to get started on the batch that I finally go to today. I knew some of them were rotting. I just didn’t have the time to get to them. Picking up meat from the processor. Two trips. Getting it ready for customers to pick up. Vending at the Farmer’s market. The sunflowers and so on. The days slip by so fast.

While all of this is going on, the tomatoes still out in the garden kept getting ripe. I haven’t had the time to pick them. They are ripening on the vine. This morning, I was out giving the calves their bottles and while they are joyfully sucking down their liquid nectar, I’m gazing over at the garden. And what do I see? Hundreds and hundreds of dark orange and red tomatoes. I’m going to estimate five 5-gallon buckets at least. I think I’m probably underestimating at this point. There could be twice that amount. We shall see tomorrow. They will be picked tomorrow. Well, at least some of them will be picked tomorrow. I’ll let you know what happens with that once I’ve gotten out there and made a dent in them.

So, tomorrow is another big day in harvest season. I’ll be picking green beans, crowder peas, and tomatoes. Some day those red beans and white beans will get picked. They are dried on the bush at this point. The only danger there is them getting wet enough and long enough that they begin to sprout in the pods. Maybe I can get them day after tomorrow. We shall see. Those beautiful sunflowers need to be cut again too.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I’ve got to get back on those tomatoes. They need to get to the refrigerator. Only I’ve got to change the settings on the big fridge. It’s really a freezer with a special temperature control. And right now, it has been converted into an actual freezer for the beef that passed through here from Saturday to today. There is still some meat in there that will get moved to another freezer and I will get my produce refrigerator back. The tomatoes in their stainless-steel pots will go in there overnight. Oh yeah, when will that project get completed? I don’t know really. But I do know it will get done.

Harvest season, when everything comes in at once, is a very busy time. But I just want to mention how rewarding it is for me. And it only lasts for a short time before we head into the relatively slower season of winter. A well-deserved break from the madness. The joy of growing, harvesting and preserving our own food is a huge reason why we do what we do here on the homestead. Yeah, it’s a lot of hard work. And it is so worth it.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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Canning tomato sauce is the name of the game this week. I have about 150 pounds of tomatoes picked so far. I think I will only be canning about 50 or 60 pounds of them between today and tomorrow. Some of them are still quite green. We shall see how it goes.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates There is so much going on right now. It is harvest time in the garden. Not just to the tomatoes, though that is the big one. However, I’m going to start with the creamery and animals and finish up with garden updates.

Creamery Scott is taking a break from working on the creamery. He finally got the entire project “dried-in”. The next big event will be putting on the metal roof. That will happen later, and in the meantime, he is using his time to clean up the construction mess and tidying up the property in general.

Mowing the fields is also happening. Cleaning up the grass in the orchard and garden area got done. General cleaning everywhere. It makes the building look so much nicer when the grass is cut and the scrap wood is gathered up and hauled off. Re-organization of supplies and tools also helps. And then there is helping me with various garden projects. I can’t turn that down. What a blessing he is when lending a hand in the garden.

Cows Yet again, we had the ag tech out for AI purposes. Will it ever end? Violet showed signs of coming into heat yet again. Well she is taken care of yet again. Now we wait another three weeks to see if it took this time.

The calves are getting fat. They get two gallons of milk per day. I like to spoil them. Wendell is big enough to live on grass but I keep giving him the milk. He would push Virginia out of the way if I did not. He is quite committed to getting his twice daily rations of milk.

Goats Several goats have had to have their heads removed from the fence yet again. It seems that every time they get access to a new area of pasture, they have to experiment will eating the grass on the other side of the fence. Nope the new grass is just not good enough for them. And some of them just never seem to learn that sticking their head with horns through the fence will get them caught.

Blue Herons We have a pair of blue herons on the big pond now. For the longest time there was only one. Now there is a pair. Have you ever seen a blue heron? They are majestic and graceful in flight. I love watching them. I have heard that when you have blue heron’s it indicates the pond is healthy.

Quail I am so pleased with how our quail operating is progressing. The hens are in full production with their laying of eggs. I have 15 hens and get 15 eggs nearly every day.

The incubator is humming along. Today the eggs in there are one week old. This process is so exciting. We have an entire life cycle operating quite efficiently. It is the one place on the homestead where everything is going smoothly at the moment. Perhaps I need to knock on wood now. I may have just jinxed them.

Donkeys I’m thinking the donkeys are just about ready for another hoof trimming. They really don’t like it. Daisy and Sweet Pea will stand still while it is going on, but they really only come up for their trimming because of the sweet feed. Donkeys are the friendliest of animals and we love our crew.

Let me pass on a bit of trivia regarding the donkeys. Did you know that they all have a cross on their backs? There are a couple of Christian legends that say it is a gift our Lord gave to the humble donkey that carried Him into Jerusalem. They are similar stories but not the same.

According to one legend, the little donkey so loved his Master that he followed Him to Calvary. Grief-stricken at the sight, he turned away but remained at his station at the foot of the cross. The shadow of the Cross fell upon him and from that day all purebred donkeys wear the Master’s Cross on their back.

Another story recounts that when Jesus was carrying his cross to the mount, a little donkey tried to help him but couldn’t get through the crowd. When the crowd dispersed, the donkey went up to Jesus, and stood behind the cross and as the sun went down, the shadow of the cross fell across the donkey and now every donkey has the cross.

According a theology lecturer at the University of Notre Dame, the tales never actually appeared in the Bible. Other facts about donkeys and the Bible is it is the only animal in the Bible other than the serpent to speak, and it plays a significant role in more than one Christian prophecy. The prophecy of Zachariah comes to mind.

Garden Sunflowers Let me start with the sunflowers. I hope to harvest them in the next couple of days. The really big ones are bending over the stalks. What is happening right now is the seeds are forming. That makes those giant heads really heavy and thus the bending over. The harvesting can be tricky once the seeds become fully ripe. Shaking the plant in any way can cause the seeds to come loose.

Scott and I have a plan to work on them together. I will hold the stalk while Scott cuts it through close to the ground. Then I will gently lower the stalk to the ground. At that point, we will cut off just two or three feet of stalk with the flower. They will get tied together in bundles of three and hung up to complete the drying process. The birds are going to be really happy this winter.

Beans I have harvested the black beans. Perhaps I already mentioned that last week. Still to harvest are the red and white beans. Then all will need to be shelled out. That’s a fun project that Scott and I will do together while watching Amazon Prime originals in the evening.

I’ve also picked the baby lima beans. The green ones I cooked and we ate them days ago. The dried ones also need to be shelled out. All of these dried beans will be used to plant again next year.

Peppers I made a really neat string of cayenne peppers and hung it up to dry. That’s all you have to do. After they are dry, I can do a couple of things with them. I might powder them up to make my own cayenne pepper seasoning. And I can chop them up into flakes and roast them in the oven. That adds a kind of nutty flavor to them. Then just toss them into soups, stir fries, and so on. Use them as you would store bought stuff. Using your own homemade seasonings is very satisfying.

The hot cherry peppers are producing like crazy. I have so many of these lovely peppers. They are not too terribly hot. Unlike the serrano peppers that I have. The serrano peppers are the hottest ones that I am growing this year. My jalapenos are quite mild. In fact, I made some pickled hot peppers and was informed by a customer that they simply were not hot. Next time I make a batch, I’ll add more serrano peppers to the mix and fewer jalapenos. In the meantime, I need to re-label the pickled hot peppers. What should I call them? Probably just pickled peppers.

I finished drying a batch of sweet bell peppers. I did two trays of green and one of red. Right now, I have a few more green ones that are turning red. I’m ripening them in a window. I hope to have lots more of these great peppers for cooking throughout the winter and spring.

Scott has prepared the potato beds for the next planting. I’m not sure. It may be too late in the season for fall potatoes, but I’m going to give it a go anyway. We shall see how big they get.

Green Beans The green beans bloomed again and I will have another picking from them within a day or two. The purple hulled cow peas also put on a bumper crop. Those may need three or four days yet before picking. Both of these lovelies will be fresh veggie for dinner soon.

Onions I successfully grew a small batch of red onions. They are currently in the drying process and will be ready soon. There are a few white onions still out in the garden. They do not look like they are going to get very big. Some of the tops are already dying and that means they have grown all they are going to this time around.

Tomatoes Now let’s talk about those tomatoes. The row is set up with tomato cages that were tied to rebar every so many feet. The sheer amount of tomatoes on the plants soon pulled that apparatus down. Yesterday, Scott went out there and tried to shore up the row. Many of the plants were laying on the ground, having broken down the make-shift trellis completely. I went out there last night to pick some and found some of the cages fell over yet again. I just need to pick and pick and pick to lighten the load.

The problem with that is I am running out of space to ripen them. I’m okay with picking my tomatoes just as they begin to turn. Once they are yellow or orange, I bring them in else the raccoon will get the results of all my fine work. I bring them in and put them on the shelves I used in the spring to start the tomatoes and peppers indoors so they are large enough to plant in the garden at the proper time. Once the seedlings are done, those shelves remain empty until this time of year when they fill up again with the fruits – literally – of my labor. The shelves are filled with tomato fruits and a few peppers.

I have four shelves currently full. There are also two 5-gallon buckets sitting in my kitchen at this very minute waiting for me to finish this podcast and return to them. They are red, ripe and ready to be turned into sauce.

Tomato Sauce Here’s my process for making tomato sauce. It’s fairly easy as long as you have the proper equipment. I start with cleaning up the tomatoes, taking out the cores and then quartering them. I put them in a pot and start heating it up very slowly on the stove. Once they are cooked, it’s time to get the seeds and skins out.

I have a Kitchen-Aid mixer that has lots of nifty attachments. One of my favorites is the food mill. Once it is set up, all I have to do is turn it on and start dipping the tomatoes out of the pot into the hopper. The seeds and skins come out in one place and the juice and pulp come out in another place. I usually run the seeds and skin waste through a second time to get the most pulp and juice possible.

Once I have the pulp and juice, it’s a matter a cooking it down to the desired thickness and then starting the canning process. Sometimes this is a two-day project. Today is one of those times. Likely I will only get the tomatoes cleaned up and cut up today. Tomorrow will be the cooking, separating seeds and skins, cooking down to desired thickness and finally canning.

Canning the sauce is as easy as dipping the thickened sauce into sterilized jars, cleaning the rims, putting on the two-piece lids and setting them in a water bath canner for 15 or 20 minutes. Zip, zam, zowie and it’s done.

What do you think? Are you ready to give it a try? I don’t do videos, only audio. But I can recommend finding a YouTube video or two to get the details of how canning is done. One day in the future I will have a class or two here at the homestead on canning. I hope to meet some of you when that day arrives.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I hope you enjoyed the donkey story. They truly are blessed creatures. We love them so much. The quail are such a blessing. And yes, the sheep, lambs, goats, and cows are a blessing as well. Our life here is full. There is always so much to do and every bit of it is a blessing. Some things are a bit onerous, like all of the cleaning. And the quail and cow waste smells something awful, but when taken in context with everything else, you just can’t beat the joy of living every day in the presence of God’s creation.

Being able to grow our own food and preserve it for the winter is also fulfilling. It gives us a security that I would not give up for anything in the world. Especially in these days of uncertainty at the grocery store. I hope I’ve inspired you to try a bit of self-sufficiency for yourself. You don’t need a big place. A few plants in pots on your apartment balcony can provide a similar experience. Grow a few peppers and tomatoes. You’ll be glad you did.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

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Have you ever wondered, “Why does cheese melt”? Well, I’m going to talk about that today. What would we do without cheese that melts? Some are gooey. Others stretch forever. Pizza wouldn’t be pizza without stretchy cheese. And what about that oozing cheese on a grilled cheese sandwich? Ok, now I’m hungry.

As always, let me take a moment for new listeners. Welcome to the show and again, as always, welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week as well as some insight into why does cheese melt.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Garden Tomatoes My tomatoes are coming in fast now. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them are out there on the vines. Twice I’ve picked tomatoes. I brought in a 5-gallon bucket full both times. On a day not very far in the future that might turn into two or three 5-gallon buckets at a time. A couple of the plants are in real trouble now and I for those I will likely have to pick all of the tomatoes even if they are still green. That’s only about three or four plants. There are fifty in the row. Lots of tomatoes left to ripen.

The tomato vines were enclosed in cages and which were tied up with baling twine tied to iron rebar driven into the ground every few feet. The weight of the tomatoes has taken down that half-hearted trellis. Well, it’s still there but leaning over quite sharply. Next year will require a modification. That’s the way of our homestead. You try something one year, see what works well and what didn’t. The next year, make improvements keeping the good and modifying the less than desirable.

Sunflowers The sunflowers are blooming. I’m not sure when to cut them down. Before the birds go crazy for sure. But exactly when I don’t know yet. These sunflowers have been a great little fun project. Who would have thought I would enjoy them so much? I hope I get the hang of harvesting them. I’m looking forward to next year and another great growing season for sunflowers.

Onions I had one entire bed of onions that I finally dug up. They can stay in the ground, but they can rot if it is wet. And after weeks of no rain, we are getting rain nearly every day. In fact, I can hear the thunder right now. Yet another afternoon thunderstorm is upon us.

Dried beans I pulled up all of the black beans. The plants were completely dry. I pulled up each plant, stripped the dried bean pods off and moved on to the next one. It was the easiest way to pick them.

There is still a bed of red beans and one of white beans. Both of those have a lot of plants that are still somewhat green. I’m going to let them dry a bit more before I go in and pick all of those pods. It had been a great year for dried beans.

I picked many of the baby lima beans. We had a meal of the green ones a couple of nights ago. I love green baby lima beans. The rest of what I picked had already dried in the shell. Those will be shelled and stored for winter. There are a lot more still in the garden, still growing. In fact, they are still blooming. We will be having lima bean harvests for a while yet.

Peppers The hot cherry peppers are really producing. I’ll be using them in another canned pickle pepper recipe. Some of them will be dried.

I have so many green peppers right now. Likely there are enough to fill the dehydrator – and it has nine shelves. And still more green peppers out in the garden. We are blessed with abundance there.

Culinary Herbs This is another area of abundance. I’m a little disappointed with the parsley, cilantro and rosemary. There is always next year. This year it’s the basil, oregano and thyme that are magical in their growth. The dehydrator will be getting many of those leaves as well.

Quail I started up the incubator once again. This is the last time this year. The earliest I would collect eggs again would be the last week of September and I’m pretty sure that would be too late. I learned my lesson last year with 48 eggs in the incubator and only 8 hatching. Somewhere around mid-September the hens dramatically reduce the number of eggs they are laying. That’s due to the reduced hours of sunlight. The roosters become infertile around the same time.

It’s probably an evolutionary survival thing. No use wasting time and energy on raising more babies in the winter. Nope. That’s the time to try and keep yourself alive. It can be rough on birds, trying to forage through the snow. Birds need protein. All the bugs are gone. The frogs are hibernating. Worms have gone farther underground where it isn’t so cold. What’s a bird to eat?

Anyway, late September eggs will be few and infertile. I have 80 eggs in the incubator. We shall see in three weeks how it all comes out.

Cows I don’t really have much to say about the cows. All look healthy. Butter is even starting to look fat. It is an unusual sight for a Jersey. The one thing that I will mention is the mud around the pond.

These animals are big. In the summer they like to hang out in the pond. Literally, they stand in the water up to their belly. It’s cool and keeps those giant bot flies off of their belly. A few years back they got into the habit of coming out of the pond at the same location time and time again. The result was that the bank broke down and eventually the pond stretched all the way to the fence. Originally, there was a strip of land more than 6 feet wide. It’s all gone now. Years later, not only is the pond all the way to the fence but the rest of the pathway is churned into mud. It is churned into deep mud.

The Mud I’m prepared for mud. I have some really great rubber boots that allow me to slog around just about anywhere. A couple of days ago I went out to bring in the girls for milking. Instead of finding them grazing in the pasture, they were still in the pond. I really didn’t want to have to go across that mud to get them moving toward the milking shed. I tried getting them to move from outside the fence. It just didn’t work. I had to bite the bullet and make my way across that mud to get them moving. And It’s not just one time. I had to follow them back across the mud.

Coming back, I was really, really careful. On the way over I sunk up in that mud so far that my boot was stuck. The mud was over a foot deep. When I tried to pull my boot out to make the next step, my foot came out and the boot stayed where it was. I put my foot back in the boot and wriggled and pulled until it got it loose. Now I’m in the middle of the mud pit. I take another step and the other boot is stuck fast in the mud. I repeated the procedure of wriggling while pulling to get that boot out as well. Thankfully, those two steps got me to more solid ground. I tried a different route on the way back and managed to only get one boot stuck.

The mud over that stretch of land is over a foot deep in places. Those 1,500-pound cows can create quite the muddy swamp. It’s a real mess. Just another task on the to do list to get that fixed.

Enough of that. Let’s talk cheese.

Why Does Cheese Melt? There are two things that happen when cheese melts. First, at about 90 degrees, the solid milk fat in the cheese begins to liquefy. You will see the cheese softening. You might see beads of melted fat rising to the surface. Second, as the cheese get hotter, the bonds holding together the casein proteins break apart and the cheese melts into a thick fluid.

The complete melting happens at different temperatures for different cheeses. Mozzarella, which is a fresh (meaning not aged), soft, high-moisture cheese, will melt at about 130 degrees. For aged cheeses with much lower moisture such as cheddar and alpine cheeses like gruyere, the melting happens at about 150 degrees. For hard cheeses that are grated like parmesan, a temperature of 180 degrees is required to get the cheese to melt.

What Makes a Good Melting Cheese? There are three things that determine the meltability of cheese. Moisture content, whether it is fresh or aged and for how long, and how it was curded. What was used to make the curd? Animal rennet or some type of acid.

Moisture Content The higher the moisture, the more easily they flow. A moist cheese contains lot of water that is interspersed between the proteins. They readily liquify. A hard cheese contains much less water so when they melt, they don’t completely liquify. You can see this illustrated on a pizza with both Mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The Mozzarella is grated and sprinkled on the pizza. When heat is added, the Mozzarella melts into one pool of cheese. That’s the effect of moisture. On the other end of the scale, the parmesan is a very low moisture and very hard cheese. Using the smaller grater, it comes out finer. The grated pieces are much thinner and shorter. When melted, you can still see the individual strands of parmesan cheese.

Age The age of the cheese can also be a factor. In a fresh cheese, such as Mozzarella, the casein protein molecules are large and stretchy. They tend to tangle up and form a rope. They get stringy. With an aged cheese, the casein molecules are acted upon by ripening enzymes which break the casein into smaller pieces. That keeps the molecules from tangling when they melt. The result is smooth, oozy melt. Or as in the case of parmesan, smooth, but not so much ooze.

Acidity A cheese made by using acid to form the curd won’t melt at all. These cheeses include, Indiana paneer, Mexican queso blanco, Italian ricotta, Greek haloumi, most fresh goat cheeses, and most vegetarian cheeses.

Using animal rennet keeps the calcium to protein bond intact. Acid-curded cheese proteins are held together simply by the proteins binding to one another. The acid used to make the curd dissolved the calcium bond. When that acid cheese is heated, it does not melt. In fact, the protein bonds tighten, forcing out any water. The water evaporates. There isn’t enough moisture left to allow the cheese to liquify. Cheeses like queso blanco and paneer can be simmered or even fried without melting. Ricotta and fresh goat cheese retain their shape in the lasagna or manicotti.

Tips for Smooth Melted Cheese Bring the Cheese to Room Temperature A sudden temperature change can cause the protein to coagulate too quickly and squeeze out the fat. If that happens, the cheese will clump, have a greasy texture or both.

Grate It Grating creates greater surface area. Heat can permeate more quickly. Large chunks with irregular shapes will melt at different rates. The outside can overcook and become clumpy or oily as above before the inside of the chunk reaches the temperature to flow.

Use Low Heat Gradual temperature changes with a lower temperature will prevent the fat from separating out of the melting cheese. It is best to add cheese at the end of a cooking process. That way it can reach melting point but not exceed it. An example is sprinkling cheese on top just as you finish the dish. Another example that may seem counterintuitive but is not, is making the cheese sauce for mac and cheese.

The sauce is made by browning flour in butter for a couple of minutes and then adding milk to make a thick sauce. That sauce is removed from the heat before adding the cheese. As the sauce is cooling the cheese is melting. Remember it only needs 150 degrees. Lastly, the cheese and sauce mixture is stirred into your choice of pasta. Though cooled somewhat, it is still hot enough to spread evenly through the dish. Add some parmesan on top, pop it into the oven to heat it through and brown the parmesan. Voila! The best mac and cheese ever.

Add Acid This works when making fondues, sauces, and soups. You can use white wine or lemon juice. The added acid will bind to the calcium in the melted cheese keeping it separate from the proteins so they cannot clump together. The liquids of wine and lemon add water to dilute the proteins and keep them flowing. Smooth, smooth, smooth.

Add Starch As in the mac and cheese example, flour or even cornstarch guards against clumping and stringiness. The starch coats the proteins and fats in the melted cheese. That keeps the proteins from clumping and the fats from separating out. Starch always makes a fine glue to hold things together.

Stir Gently You will get there in time. Don’t try to rush it. Overstirring encourages the proteins to clumps. You don’t want it to become clumpy or stringy.

Serve Hot Melted cheese is much more likely clump as it cools.

Use the Proper Cheese For smooth melted cheese use a well-aged cheddar or high-moisture cream cheese. Save the Mozzarella for pizza.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. Are you hungry now? I have a recipe on the website for that fabulous mac and cheese I talked about. Go to www.peacefulheartfarm.com and click or tap “recipes” on the menu. And I’ll put a link in the show notes. All of my recipes are printable.

Did you get the answer to the question of, “Why does cheese melt?” I hope so. Feel free to contact me if you have questions and I will answer to the best of my ability. It’s always good to hear from you. It makes my day.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

Website www.peacefulheartfarm.com

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Today I’m going to review how to get raw milk cheese in Virginia via our herd share program. And, because I have lots of new listeners, I’m going to review our creamery project.

I do want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to my veteran homestead loving regulars. Thank you so much for stopping by the FarmCast every week. I appreciate you all so much.

As always, there’s a lot going on and there is not nearly enough time in the day to get everything done. And as always, I love it. It’s so good to be alive.

Homestead Life Updates We are finally getting a break from the heat. Rain has finally returned – at least for the time being. There is still quite a bit of summer left to go.

Herd Share Program It has been a while since I talked about our Herd Share program. We offer you the opportunity to have your own part of our dairy herd. You too can experience what we are blessed with by virtue of operating our homestead. I know all of you cannot possibly do what we are doing, but you’d like to have the benefit of fresh dairy products from pasture raised cows.

The way you obtain raw milk cheese in Virginia is to purchase part of the herd and then simply pay a monthly boarding and maintenance fee and we will take care of everything else for you. On a weekly basis, you come to the farm and pick up your fresh milk products. We have butter and cheese year-round. During the active milking season we also have fresh, raw A2A2 milk and Yogurt.

We guarantee fresh milk from the first Saturday in May through the last Saturday in October. Sometimes we have milk earlier and sometimes it lasts longer into November. As I said earlier cheese and butter are available year-round. We have many members who are only in it for the cheese and butter.

If you are not familiar with A2A2 milk, I have a podcast on that topic titled, “What is A2A2 Milk?”. Link in the show notes. Or just go to our website (give web address), click or tap the podcast menu item and browse for it. It’s a way down the page as it was well over a year ago that I did that podcast.

The Area We Serve For those of you out there listening to the sound of my voice, if you are in the southern/southwestern Virginia area or northern North Carolina area, we are here for you. It is about an hour trip from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and perhaps an hour and a half from Greensboro. In Virginia, Martinsville, Hillsville, and Galax are all less than an hour away. Wytheville is slightly over an hour. It takes us an hour and 10 minutes to get to the downtown Farmer’s Market. Roanoke is 2 hours from us. Floyd, Christiansburg and Blacksburg are somewhere in between.

Herd Share Pickups We are open for on-farm sales and herd share pickups: Saturdays 3 - 5pm and Tuesdays 10am - 12pm. Come on out and get yourself some homestead sunshine. Take a look at how our animals are raised. We’ll answer all of your questions and make sure you get the best grass fed and finished beef, lamb and goat on the market today. Tuesdays 10am – 12 pm and Saturdays 3 – 5 pm.

Creamery For new listeners I want to go over what we are doing with our creamery. My husband, Scott, is single-handedly building our USDA inspected dairy facility. It is a monstrous task. He has been doing the physical work on it for three and a half years. Long before that he was drawing up the plans. He was born with a hammer in his hand so he is very skilled at doing these drawings. We had long discussions about what we needed to include. The dairy inspector has been involved every step of the way. Many hours went into the design before the first bit of ground was dug up for the foundation.

Once it is complete, we will be able to offer our raw milk cheeses to the general public. Right now, it is only available via our herd share program that I just talked about. The milk, butter and yogurt will only ever be available via herd share. Unless and until the laws change in Virginia.

There are many different sections to the creamery building project. There is a barn, a milking parlor, a milk storage room, a full bath, the cheese make room, two cheese caves, a commercial kitchen and a storefront where I will do business with all of you.

Barn The farthest away from my back door is the barn and animal loafing area. This is where we will collect the cows for milking. It is covered and will keep the donkeys out of the rain and snow. There is also a small area on the other of a wall from the stanchion platform. That will be used for various other aspects of animal husbandry.

Milking Stanchions and Milking Parlor From the loafing area, the cows walk up four short steps to get to the stanchions. This area is set up with metal bars that keep the cows together and at the perfect angle for milking. The cows walk into the stanchions and eat a little snack while we are milking them. We are standing below them where the floor of the milking parlor and the rest of the building is about 2 and a half feet lower than the elevated barn floor.

Let’s do a virtual tour of the rest of the building. You are currently standing on the floor of the milking parlor. It is open and breezy. The design is one we saw at another dairy near us. They got the idea from a trip to New Zealand. Most milking parlors are closed in, dark, and humid. Ours has a roof but no sides. The air freely circulates.

Imagine you were facing the cows in their stanchions. Now turn around and face the other way. The rest of the creamery is now in front of you.

Milk Room Directly in front of you is the doorway to the milk room. This is where the milk is stored. There is a direct pipeline from the milking parlor to the milk room. Its main feature is a large stainless-steel bulk milk tank. Our tank will hold up to 80 gallons of milk. The milk must be cooled quickly and this is the piece of equipment that makes that happen. In accordance with USDA inspection rules, it must be emptied, cleaned, and sanitized at least every three days.

Directly to your left would be the wall of the large cheese cave. There is no access from this side, called the dirty side. To the far left is a utility room. It holds the washer and dryer and the pipeline milking system. That thing is really loud. I’m glad it will be behind closed doors in the utility room.

Full Bath You are still standing in the middle of the parlor floor. Directly to your right is a doorway to the clean side. Walking through the doorway, immediately on your right is a bathroom complete with shower. We will be able to come in dirty and sweaty from milking and take a quick shower and get into clean clothes before entering the “clean side”.

When you walk into this section the bathroom is on the right and in front of you is storage area for clean clothes, aprons, gloves, boots and so on that are used within the cheese make room. It is the ultimate in clean spaces. There are even pans of bleach water at various locations to keep the soles of boots clean and sanitized.

Cheese Make Room Past the storage areas is the entrance to the cheese make room and a hard-right turn will lead to an entrance/exit door to the creamery on the right. We are going to enter the cheese make room. In here we find all of the tools and equipment used to make the cheese. A vat is the centerpiece. But there are lots of cheese forms or molds for shaping the curd. There are sinks and tables – all stainless steel. Shelves contain various sets of weight, measuring tools, and cleaning supplies. In the corner is the magnificent cheddar cheese press we special ordered from the Netherlands.

The floors have a tile with a special and very expensive grout that will hold up to the acid pH of the cheese whey. It empties out of the vat directly onto the floor and flows down to a floor drain in the corner.

The Cheese Caves After entering the room, turn left and walk all the way across the room to the exit door. It leads to a common area between the cheese caves and the kitchen. Directly in front of you is the door to the small cheese cave. To the left is the door into the large cheese cave. To the right is an open doorway to the commercial kitchen area.

The raw milk cheese caves are heavily insulated rooms that will maintain specific temperatures and humidity. We are currently using the small cave to age the cheeses we are making for our herd share members. It is complete except for electricity. Scott has something rigged up that works quite well for the humidifier, a small lamp, the window air conditioner and Cool Bot. The Cool Bot is an electronic device that fools the air conditioner into thinking it is warmer than it actually is so the air conditioner will continue to run. Most won’t cool a room below 60 degrees. But with a Cool Bot we can get our temperature down to the low 50’s which is ideal for aging cheese. The small humidifier keeps the humidity well over 70% and sometimes as high as 83%. I’d like to get it to go higher. Still working on that detail.

The large cheese cave will be similarly equipped and has enough space to house an entire year’s worth of cheese. Some of our cheeses need at least 8 or 9 months to reach a decent maturity and will only get better with time.

Commercial Kitchen Standing in that entry alcove, large cave on the left, small cave in front of you, turn right into the commercial kitchen. You can see yet another entrance/exit door. It’s not there yet, but you will eventually see a large stove to the left of the door and a triple sink to your left against that wall. Stainless steel tables will be in the middle of the room. Freezers and refrigerators will be lined along the wall opposite of the door. A window above the chest freezers will give visitors a view into the cheese make room.

Far to the right you will see the door to the storefront. And that is the last room in the building. Of course, it also has an entrance/exit door. This door is where you guys would enter the building to pick up product. Another window here that looks into the cheese make area.

When it is finally complete, we will have an open house for you all to come and see how it all turned out. Classes in cheesemaking and food preservation will also be a time where you all can see the final creation. And if you are a herd share owner, weekly and/or monthly visits bring you even more access to all of it.

That went a little longer than I originally intended but I get so excited when I’m talking about our creamery. I want everyone to know how wonderful this project is and what a wonderful job Scott is doing to bring our dreams to life.

How about some homestead updates on the animals, gardens and orchard.

Animals All of the animals are doing well, even in the heat. The cows produce slightly less milk on really hot days, but for the most part they are doing a splendid job of producing milk and otherwise munching lazily on grass all day.

The calves are getting bigger every day. Luna’s eye is healed and it looks like she will have permanent scarring on her eyeball. We now have the flies under control and do not foresee any future issues with pink eye.

We are down to just two bulls being raised for meat. I called the meat processor today to get them scheduled. It will be October 2021 before they can be processed. There are still hiccups in the food supply chain due to the virus. It looks like it is going to take quite a while to get that flow back to normal. The overflow from the closure or reduction of service from large processing plants keeps overwhelming smaller, custom processing operations used by small farmers.

The goats and sheep are also doing very, very well. I am pleased that we have had no issues with lambs this year. It is the first time in our history on this homestead that we have come this far without losing a single lamb. A 70% to 80% survival rate is much more common for us.

I noticed the coats on the donkeys are really glossy today. Probably a month ago they finally shed all of their winter coat. Quite often they roll in the dirt and dull their coats, but we had rain last night and they were particularly glossy this morning.

Garden The heat has kept me busy watering the garden. I don’t know if I mentioned this in prior podcasts, but I hope to have drip irrigation in place next year. We keep improving our gardens each year and I think it is time for the automatic watering system to get going again. We had it working for a couple of years, but we have not reconstructed it since the entire garden was redesigned four years ago.

The peppers, tomatoes and sunflowers are the centerpieces of the garden at the moment. Many of the sunflowers have bloomed. They are gorgeous. The tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes. I saw an orange one this morning I will have to go our there later and see if there are others. The peppers are producing well. Some of the peppers are smaller than I think they should be and I believe that is due to not enough fertilizing. I need to step up my game in that arena.

Well now that I think on it, the basil, oregano and thyme are also worth note. I took an oregano leaf to Scott the other day and let him smell it and identify it. Don’t you just love the smell of fresh basil and oregano? I’ll be drying some of that for use this winter.

Orchard A lot of the blackberries are getting eaten by the birds. There is a ground hog hole in there also. He is probably taking advantage as well. Scott went out there with the chain saw and cut a path between the rows. I might have mentioned that last time. He started last week and just yesterday finished all of the rows. I can freely pick berries now. But there is still so much that needs to happen with cleaning up those rows of blackberries. Now that I have a clear path, I foresee the final clean up happening much later. In the fall or perhaps even in the winter.

The strawberries are completely overrun with weeds. I have a task on my calendar that says, “weed the strawberries”. It also says it is four weeks overdue. Do you have any idea how many weeds have taken over in four weeks? It’s a lot. There are far more weeds than strawberry plants. Looking on the bright side, the larger weeds are much easier to pull up all at once. And with just a little work, it makes a very big dent. Feeling you have accomplished something is very easy when you see the earth where previously it was covered in large green things with lots of stickers.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. I hope you enjoyed the tour of the creamery. It’s good to review how far we have come every once in a while. If you looking for raw milk cheese in Virginia or nearby, I hope you’ll consider joining our herd share program. We make really fine cheese and our milk is rich, nutritious and, best of all, delicious. The butter I make is the best I have ever tasted and I have had other grass-fed raw milk butters. Mine is superb. You won’t find this kind of quality and flavor anywhere else.

If you enjoyed this podcast, don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes or your favorite podcast listening app. Also, please share this podcast with any of your friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

Thank you so much for listening and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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Blackberry jam. That’s today’s topic. Seedless blackberry jam of course. I can’t abide those tiny seeds between my teeth. I’m also starting to preserve veggies from the garden. So much to talk about today.

But first, a shout out to you all. Thank you and welcome new listeners. I hope you’ll stick around, subscribe and share my podcasts. Welcome back veteran homestead-loving regulars. I truly appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen to me.

There are tons of things going on at the farm this week. Let’s get to it.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Scott is still having to do so many other things. The creamery work is creeping along. After tomorrow that will change. Part of the reason he has less time on the creamery is the twice daily caring for the steer and bull that are going to processing.

Cows and Calves Training the steer and bull to be comfortable with the trailer has been quite the job for Scott. I talked about the small corral he built to enclose them in close proximity with the trailer. They had to go into the trailer to get their hay. Twice a day Scott has been feeding them hay and filling their water. The space is quite small so they ate their ration and were ready for more when he showed up. He has been doing this for two weeks now. It was quite time consuming but it worked. They got very comfortable with the setup and would willingly go into the trailer to eat their hay within a short period of time. Cattle are such creatures of habit. They don’t like things that are different or new, but once they get used to things being a certain way, they just go on about their business.

As far as the girls go, I think we have finally completed the AI breeding. At least I hope so.

Fly control is working. Even the ag tech asked what we were doing and commented on how well it is working. It does have to be done twice a day, but that is easy for us because we are milking twice a day. Scott does it while the milking machine is running. Well, except for Cloud. She is so touchy about anything from her underbelly down. He can spray her back and sides easily enough, but as soon as he tries to spray lower, she starts kicking if the milking machine is hooked up to her.

Recently he tried it again while the milker was running. He had been spraying her either before or after the machine and she was okay with that. Something about being hooked up to the machine combined with the spray was upsetting to her. But he thought surely by now, she must have gotten used to the spraying and would tolerate it while the milking machine was running. Nope. She kicked and kicked and kicked. Of course, she kicked the inflations off. Scott was able to get the equipment out from under her feet before she destroyed it but it was a close call. So back to square one with her. Use the fly spray either before or after, but not during, the time that the machine is running.

Goats Let’s talk about the intelligence of goats. Do they have any? They do actually. They are quite adept at escaping captivity – except for one specific circumstance. They can get their heads caught in the fence over and over again. Some have a hard time figuring out that it is unwise to put your head through there because your horns are going to get in the way of pulling your head back out. This morning, not one, not two, but three had to be rescued from their self-imposed imprisonment.

Sheep and Donkeys Not much to say about the sheep. The lambs are healthy and growing. Moms are also doing well. The donkeys are doing their job well and keeping the predators away. We couldn’t ask for more.

Quail There are 53 quail chicks in the brooder. They are a week and a half old and nearly fully feathered. They are doing great. This week I figured out how to save money and time cleaning up their mess with the food. When eating, they fling the food around. They literally put their head in the opening and start shaking it back and forth and spreading the grain all over the place. What I discovered quite by accident was that once the feeders got down to a certain level, the shape of the container prevented them from slinging it outside of the feeder.

The feeders are half gallon jars screwed onto a base. Ideally, you fill up the jar, screw on the lid, turn it over so the jar is upside down and the feed empties into the feeder tray. As they eat the food, more drops from the jar into the feeder tray. What I found out was that once the jar is empty, the feeder tray starts to get emptied. And as I said, the level is low enough that they can no longer strew the food all over the place. They still sling their heads back and forth but the food stays inside the feeder tray. It means I have to keep a closer check on their food, but the amount that is being wasted is nearing zero.

Before the change, I would fill up that half gallon jar and in a couple of days it would be nearly empty so I would refill it. That’s a lot of feed. The problem was that most of it was on the floor of the brooder being trampled and pooped on. It was quite a mess. Now, with my new system, they still make a mess because they are birds and they poop a lot and there are a lot of them. However, there is no longer a whole bunch of wasted feed mixed in with the poop. The jars are still there but they are empty. Instead of filling them up, I only put a little feed in the tray. It works. Yay. They were literally wasting at least four times what they were eating. Now the brooder doesn’t require as much changing of bedding and we don’t have to buy as much feed. It’s a great solution.

The previous batch of chicks can be considered grown at this point. They are a little over seven weeks old and I am getting 15 to 18 eggs daily from the penthouse. There are 50 birds up there and it is likely that 25 or so are hens. We could easily see those 15 to 18 eggs daily reach 25.

Garden The garden is still going great guns. I have to water a lot. Sometimes we get afternoon thunderstorms but most days I have to get out there and give them some water.

A few of the tomatoes are starting to turn yellow. There are so many out there. It won’t be long now and they will start ripening by the gallons.

The sunflowers are blooming. Just in the last week or so, some of them have shot up to about 12 feet. It is interesting. For most of the time they were all relative close in height. But now there are lots of varying heights. But almost all are blooming. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. I hope to have lots and lots of seeds from these flowers.

The peppers are coming on strong as well. They need to be fertilized to make bigger peppers but I’m okay with them being a little smaller. There are just so many. I’m trying to figure out where to set up the dehydrator. The one I have is pretty big. Last year I had it on my countertop in the kitchen. This year my countertops are full of milk cans and butter churn stuff. I may end up just putting it on the dining room table.

Some of the peppers I’m going to use in making pickled peppers. You know those great peppers that they have at Subway? I think those are pepperoncini. They are similar to the banana peppers that I have. I actually like banana peppers better than pepperoncini. Both peppers are mild and sweet, but the banana peppers are tangy where the pepperoncini are slightly bitter. So I’ll be slicing and canning some of those. I also plan on canning some of the jalapenos. I may even try my hand at a mixed hot pepper batch. The serrano peppers are coming along more slowly but there are a ton of them out there. I’m going to have so much fun with peppers.

Blackberry Patch Now for the main topic of today. Blackberry jam. In order to have blackberry jam, I need to have some blackberries. Therein lies the problem. You know I’m always saying how much there is to do and so little time to do it. The blackberries canes have been neglected over the past couple of years. I already had too much blackberry jam and syrup that I didn’t worry about it. The birds and other animals were getting them all. I was okay with that. Unfortunately, the canes and vines need to be trimmed and cut back regularly because blackberries are very prolific.

The berries grow on the new growth and the old canes need to be removed regularly. Then there is the fact that the vines grow very fast and spread all over the place. We have the original plants all in nice rows and a trellis erected to keep them trained to the row. Well, that doesn’t work out so well if you don’t go out there and actually train them to the trellis.

There are vines out there that shot up from the ground and arched into the air well over my head. They are thumb thick. And you know they are not going to arch over the trellis just because it is there. They will do that sometimes, but they are just as likely to arch across to the next row. And not just on one side. No, no, no. This cane arches this way and that cane arches that way. Not only do the vines go across from one row to the next, but they also touched down in the middle of the rows. Rooting blackberry canes is really easy. Just stick them in the dirt. So everywhere they arched over and touched the ground, a new cane was born. It has become quite a jungle out there.

I was going to go out there with a pair of hedge trimmers and a couple of different pruning tools and work my way through the mess. However, Scott offered to use the chainsaw instead. I immediately took him up on that offer. We had already decided not to worry too much about making it pretty. We just needed to cut through the jungle so I could get to the berries. There are so many berries out there. But it was impossible to get to them. There were no actual rows left. So that was the first task. Re-establish the rows.

Scott took the chainsaw out there and cut a path between the rows. Well, he did most of the rows. There are still a few rows to go. But it was enough for me to get in there with a couple of buckets. I think I got enough for a batch of jelly. And now that the path is clear, I will be able to get more. There are still lots of red ones out there that will be ripening over the next couple of weeks. I think by mid-August they will have played out.

We will still need to get in there and clean it up. As I said, the old canes need to be removed. The ones that grew into the middle of the paths need to be cut all the way to the ground. Hopefully, we will keep those trimmed back from now on. Another issue that arose was the encroachment of wild blackberries. Wild blackberries have wicked thorns. Well some domestic ones do too. But we planted thornless blackberries. Now there are a bunch of wild blackberries mixed in with our thornless varieties. They are easy to spot. They will rip your clothes off. As I said, wicked thorns. Some of them are pretty big too.

In general, blackberries grow really well in our area. We use the goats to keep them under control in the pastures, but we can’t use the goats in the orchard. Goats won’t care whether they have thorns or not. They will simply eat them all.

So long story short, I was able to harvest some blackberries. Folks at the farmer’s market have been asking for jam and I’m going to make some tomorrow. It’s quite the task. As I mentioned earlier, I can’t stand seeds in my blackberry jam. Fortunately, I’ve come up with a system for getting those seeds out that is not onerous. I used to watch my mom using a food mill. Back in the day, it was all done by hand. Today, we have tools that make that task much easier.

I have a food mill attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. It is quite simple to use. Hook it up. Turn it on. Put the blackberries in the hopper and the fruit and pulp are separated from the seeds. I use it for tomatoes also. There is quite a bit of cleanup afterwards, but for me it is still worth the effort. The end product is out of this world. I love blackberry jam.

I have a stainless-steel pot made specifically for making jams and jellies. The bottom is weighted. It has pint increments embossed on the side. There is even a pour spout in one edge. I usually dip, but it is nice to have the pour spout there when I want it. The biggest advantage of this particular pot is the shape. It is perhaps eight or nine inches in diameter at the bottom and maybe 12 or so inches at the top. What that does is provide a greater surface area for evaporation. And this is important to me as I like to make my jams without added pectin. Instead of jelling after a couple of minutes at a boil when using pectin from a box, it takes 30 minutes or so to reach the proper temperature for jelling without it. Again, the extra time is worth it to me.

The ingredients are simple. Blackberries and sugar. I use the recipe in the Ball canning book. It takes nine cups of berries and six cups of sugar. Thirty minutes of cook time and it’s ready to go in the jar. Jams and jellies are sealed by using the water bath canning method. Basically, covering the jars with boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes. Perhaps 20 for our elevation. Whatever the recipe indicates is what I do.

Canning used to be a task that I put off as long as I could. It seemed quite complicated. Now, having done it many times over many years, it seems quite simple. It’s amazing how that happens. In the beginning, reading the recipe over and over to make sure I have everything just right. Now, more often than not, I only pull out the book to refresh my memory on how long it needs to boil.

What do you think? Would you like to learn how to can jams and jellies? Once the creamery is completed, the commercial kitchen will come next. How about a few classes in cooking and preserving food?

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. Life is full here and the craziness of the world seems far away. We are blessed with this life that we have built over the last 17 years. It feeds us physically, emotionally and spiritually. There is always purposeful activity and a sense of connection with our Lord in every moment. I know you all have that too. But for me, this environment makes it so much easier. God’s creation is always there at our fingertips.

I hope you enjoyed the trip around the homestead and through the blackberry brambles. And if you did, please hop over to Apple Podcasts, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. Also, please share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

To share your thoughts: * Leave a comment on our Facebook Page * Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

To help the show: * PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. * Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify * Donate on Patreon

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In today’s podcast “Best Animals for a Homestead” is the topic. We have tried many animals and plan to try a few more. The best animals for a homestead will depend on your goals and land situation. I’ll talk about our thought processes and how we came to choose our animals and specific breeds.

Let me take a minute to say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. If it were not for you, this show would not exist. I appreciate you all and hope you and your families are doing well. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Because this podcast is generally about the best animals for a homestead, I’ll keep the garden and fruit portion relatively short.

Garden The garden is amazing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We love this ground cover. The plants are thriving like they never have before. Even with the harsh heat we have been experiencing, everything is thriving.

Tomatoes The tomatoes are coming on strong. There seemed to be only a few tomatoes for a while, but now when I go out there, I see every plant has many, many tomatoes. It won’t be long now. The only type of tomato I am growing this year is a paste tomato. I will get my slicing tomatoes from other vendors at the farmer’s market. My tomato crop is specifically designed to produce lots of tomatoes to be used in making tomato sauce and barbecue sauce.

Peppers Peppers are up next. You can’t have tomato plants without pepper plants. They are all doing so well. The sweet banana peppers starting bearing first, then the jalapeno and cayenne started ripening. I’ve harvested only one green bell pepper but many more are in the near future. The plants are strong and bearing lots of fruit. They just need to get a bit bigger. It’s going to be a fabulous year for peppers. That green bell pepper was out of this world. I like to cut up a banana pepper and sprinkle it over my eggs while they are cooking. The peppers get cooked just enough to add their fabulous flavor to the eggs.

Potatoes All of the potatoes have been harvested. We had about 75 square feet of red potatoes and 25 square feet of Yukon Gold potatoes. Most of them were quite small but also quite healthy. They are the size of new potatoes, about two to three inches in diameter, and I am treating them as such. Rather than curing and firming the skins, I’m letting them be with their thin skins so perfect for boiling and roasting.

In the past we have lost many potatoes before getting them out of the ground due to rotting with fungus. Again, this time all healthy. I’m ready to plant again.

Crowder Peas I started picking the crowder peas a few days ago. And then again last night I picked them again. I will wait another day or two and give them another go. I have great luck with crowder peas every year. It appears this year will be a bumper crop year.

Basil and Other Culinary Herbs This is my first year for really growing basil. I am really pleased with how easy it was to grow this herb. I’m packaging up 2 cup bags to take to the farmer’s market. Come see me on Saturdays in Wytheville, VA 8 am to noon. I’m including a fresh Basil Pesto recipe with every purchase. If you’re not in my area and want the recipe, I’ll put a link in the show notes. Or just hop over to our website at Peaceful Heart Farm dot com and select “recipes” from the menu. It will be at the top of the list.

The Oregano and Thyme are also doing well. The parsley and cilantro don’t look so good. I’ll have to investigate how to do better with those two. I think the Rosemary will also do well, but it grows much slower. Because we have lamb, we use a lot of rosemary. And I love it when it’s fresh. Dried works okay. But fresh is the best. I have a little bit of mint growing here and there also. I want to try a mint sauce recipe with our lamb. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that so far and am looking forward to it. I may make some mint jelly as well. Sometimes mint sauce recipes use mint jelly or offer it as a substitute ingredient.

Fruit The blackberry bushes are producing lots of fruit. However, it is such a jungle down there I’m not really able to harvest it. We have been doing other tasks and have let them get overgrown. Blackberry canes are very prolific. Perhaps you’ve had some wild ones invade your space. They can be a real pain. Most of ours are thornless, but there are many wild volunteers that make picking the berries a greater challenge. Certainly not as much of a challenge as picking from a patch that is entirely wild with an abundance of thorns, but a hindrance just the same.

I really enjoy picking berries when there are no thorns. Well, I guess we need to just take a day to go in there with hedge trimmers and cut out the overgrowth and clear out the wild ones. I’m pretty sure they already have a pretty good foot hold and are solidly mixed in with the thornless ones, but with diligent effort we can keep them under control. It’s just one of those homestead jobs that is not really fun. Some things on the homestead are wonderful and other things are really unpleasant. Getting my ankles ripped up by blackberry thorns is unpleasant. I guess I could wear thick socks. But it’s ssssoooo hot out there. Is it hot where you are? Moving on to the animals.

Animals I’ll give a health and wellness update and then some information on how we came to have these particular animals. After I cover what we have, I’ll go into some that we want to have but don’t have yet.

Sheep Sheep were the first animals that we added to the homestead in 2010. We started with a dozen pregnant ewes. We added a breeding ram, grew the flock to over 70, then scaled back to our present flock of six to eight ewes and one ram. This year we had eight ewes and have now added 9 lambs. All doing well and keeping together for the most. The health of our flock has steadily improved over the years.

We chose katahdin sheep. It is a meat breed as opposed to a fiber breed. They are referred to as hair sheep. That means that they shed their wool every spring. We do not need to keep up with having them sheared every year. There are other hair sheep, but after research we decided on katahdin due to their excellent mothering instincts and their ability to thrive on pasture. They have internal parasite issues comparable to other breeds. I don’t think there is any way to get around that issue. Breeding for parasite resistance and managing our pastures has improved our flock health tremendously.

If we knew in the beginning what we know now, we would have asked a few more pertinent questions before purchasing. We would have looked at the eyelids of a few of the ewes before we bought them. The flock we purchased came with a heavy worm load. They literally needed to be wormed every 3 or 4 months just to keep them and their lambs alive. Indeed, we lost a few ewes and lots or lambs before we got it under control. Naïve as we were, we did not even know it would be a problem. Oftentimes we as humans go into a situation thinking everyone thinks and acts as we do; that is a great illusion. They would of course be caring for their animals in a manner similar to our plan. Not true.

Anyway, over the years we have learned how to tell when they are stressed with parasites and act quickly to bring it under control. Because of this kind of husbandry, we no longer have what I would call real issues with parasites. We may go an entire year or more without using chemical wormer at all. In other years, it may only one or two animals that get treatment. In the past four or five years we have not had to use much at all. This spring, not one single animal needed treatment. Oh, they still have the parasites and have to be monitored. But they are able to handle it effectively. A healthy flock can be maintained without chemicals. Pasture maintenance and management is the key. Well, good genetics are also important. But even the best genetics will fail if the pastures are not managed well.

Donkeys Donkeys were the next animal to be added to the homestead. We chose miniature donkeys. Working with small animals was what we were comfortable with and these beauties fit the bill. Daisy was pregnant with Sweet Pea when we purchased her. Both are still on the homestead and both are doing very well. Sweet Pea ended up being bigger than her mom. I’m not sure she would even qualify as a miniature. They must be 36” or less at the shoulder.

A few years later we added Johnny. He produced several foals for us including Cocoa whom we still have. He produced so prolifically that we decided that enough was enough. We wanted to keep him so we enlisted the vet to change him from a Jack to a John. It is fitting is it not? A John is a gelded Jack. Johnny is a John. He will no longer produce Jennys. There is another term for Jenny before they have their first foal, but I can’t remember it right now.

Johnny and Cocoa are also doing well. The problem we have with the donkeys right now is we simply don’t need four. Eventually, we will be selling Johnny and Sweet Pea. Daisy has always been a favorite and Cocoa is my next favorite. They are just friendly and loving. Sweet Pea is an attention hog. She is so friendly she will keep pushing and nudging you from behind for more attention. Johnny is quite shy but if he lets you get close, he really enjoys a good scratch as much as the girls.

We chose donkeys as guard animals for the sheep and lambs. And ours are very good at it. They have kept the coyotes away. We only had one bad incident with coyotes. Spring lambing was in full swing. It rained heavily one night and the pond flooded out into the field. The donkeys were on one side and the sheep and lambs on the other side. We came out to find three lambs destroyed by the coyotes. But again, that was the only incident. We’ve lost a lamb here and there to other predators. But the coyotes stay away. That was and is always the main concern I have with sheep and lambs. Coyotes can be devastating to a flock of sheep.

Cows and Calves I’ll start out with saying that all of the cows and calves are doing very well. I have started using a natural fly spray and it is working. I’m am very pleased. Flies are a real problem when you have cattle. It’s the poop, you see. Flies love to use it as a breeding ground. And cows make a lot of poop. But with a few squirts of my special fly spray twice a day, we are keeping them at bay. We did have that issue with Luna and pink eye that I talked about last time, but I am keeping a close watch on her and making sure she gets her fly spray twice a day. The spray does not diminish the fly population. Later, we will have chickens to help keep the fly population down. More on that later.

As I have mentioned before, we have Normande cows. For you guys that are new, there is a whole podcast on why we chose Normandes. I’ll put a link in the show notes. I’ll just summarize it here.

It started off with me wanting to have a family cow for milk, butter and cheese. Quickly that grew to wanting a small herd to make handmade farmstead cheese. We chose the Normande breed to one main reason along with a few more major/minor reasons. The main reason is they are a dual breed cow. We needed to have a calf every year to have milk. The calf would be grown out for meat. That was the original plan. The dual breed was perfect for that. The calf would produce excellent meat and the cow would produce excellent milk. Usually a cow is either excellent at producing beef or prolific in making milk. The Normande does both. There are other breeds that are considered dual breeds but we settled on the Normande because of the other major/minor characteristics that were important to us.

I did want to make cheese and the Normande, as well as being a dual breed, was genetically bred in France to produce the finest cheese. They were also bred to sustain themselves on grass. We did not know how great a boon that was until we purchased that Jersey and saw how much supplemental grain she required just to maintain her weight. The Normandes have no such requirement and still produce similar amounts of milk.

Other great things are that they have extremely beautiful coats. They are docile, very docile. Here again, the Jersey cow gave us the true contrast there. Sure, the Jersey has those beautiful and gentle eyes. But let me tell you, they can be quite aggressive. Mostly with the other cows, but she has certainly challenged us from time to time as well. We will eventually sell her and stay with our Normandes. She is a lovely cow and we have learned a lot. But the Normande is the cow for us.

We purchased Claire and Buttercup in 2011. Claire was bred to an angus bull and gave birth to a lovely calf. Willis has been gone for many years but I still remember the joy of that first calf being born. Buttercup is a full sister to Claire and one year younger. The next year we added Cloud, Violet and Lilly. We also purchased a bull, Teddy, with that lot. Teddy was sold a few years back. Cloud was a bred heifer and gave birth to Dora who we lost last year. Dora had complications following a breech calf. Well, the complications likely happened before the birth began. She was two weeks early, hence the breech position and subsequent infection that took her down.

We purchased Butter, a Jersey cow, last year for her A2A2 milk. She was our seed for starting our herd share program. At that time, our cows had not been tested for the A2A2 genetic trait and we wanted to offer A2A2 milk to our herd share customers.

Our current herd consists of the matriarch, Claire, and her sister, Buttercup along with Cloud, Violet and Butter. That’s five cows for the moment. We also have two heifers. Cloud gave birth to Luna in November last year and Buttercup gave us Virginia just five weeks ago.

It will still be a while before the two heifers add milk to our supply. Luna will be bred summer 2021 and will give birth to her first calf in spring 2022. Virginia will follow the year after. Or we could breed her in September or later in 2021 for a calf in the summer or fall of 2022. We shall see. It takes a while to build a herd.

Goats There is way too much information on various goats for my information here to be of much use. I wanted Cashmere for my knitting projects. There is no registered cashmere breed, though there is an American Cashmere Goat Association. With cashmere it’s all about the fiber. Lots of goat breeds produce cashmere. A cashmere goat herd is simply one where selective breeding has produced the finest fiber. That was my only criteria for a goat breed – other than we needed pasture maintenance. They are great at keeping those wild blackberries down. I can’t turn them loose in the blackberries we are growing on purpose. They will not distinguish between wild thorny, thorny blackberries and our lovely thornless ones. They will simple eat everything in sight. They eat the briars and wild roses as well.

Goats eat lots of plants that the cows and sheep won’t touch. They keep small trees and bushes under control as well. Left alone the pastures would be filled with all kinds of bushes and young trees, especially pine trees. They can really take over the edges of a pasture quickly. Future plans include thinning out the cashmere goats to nothing and then bringing in some meat goats. Right now, Kiko is the breed at the top of my list, with Spanish waiting in the wings. They are both meat goats with low parasite loads and little hoof maintenance. That’s another reason for my change of heart with the goats. Our current herd requires regular hoof trimming. If I can shop well, the next one will not.

That’s all I’m going to say about the goats. You may be thinking of milking goats or meat goats, but I really don’t have a lot of information in those areas to add to your knowledge.

Quail The quail chicks are hatched. We have 52 in the brooders and 4 more still in the incubator. Two of those in the incubator will live, one other is a maybe will live and the fourth is not going to make it. There is a problem with its legs and it cannot stand. Let me back up a little bit. There is a lot to this story.

Most of them hatched on Saturday. They stay in the incubator for up to three days. They need to dry off and get some strength in their legs and they need to be kept consistently warm. The incubator provides that environment. They were scheduled to go into the brooders on Tuesday. That date changed to Monday based on a couple of different incidents.

Power Outage So much has happened that it is a little bit of a blur. I can’t recall whether it was Saturday evening or Sunday evening when we were blessed with rain and I thought, “great, I don’t have to water the garden”. Watering the garden had become nearly a daily activity. It was a tremendous thunderstorm. So tremendous that the power went out. The incubator was off and those 50 plus babies were now in danger. A call to the power company revealed that the power was guaranteed to be back on by 3:00 am. Good to know, but without the incubator or some other source of heat, those newly hatched quail would not survive.

Scott came to the rescue and hooked up the generator and selectively turned on breakers so the incubator was functional. It was quite the balancing act. The cows still needed to be milked so he also turned on the breaker that would provide power to the portable milker. After that, the circuit breaker for the portable milker was turned off and the one for the water pump was turned on so we could clean up the milking equipment and get showers. That one was turned off and the circuits for the freezers were turned on. Thankfully, the power was back on long before 3:00 am.

Stabilizing the Incubator The problem with the power going on and off and the incubator is stabilizing the heat and humidity. While they are just eggs, this has not really been a problem. But the last two hatchings required me to vent the humidity and temperature just a little to keep from suffocating the babies. For whatever reason, when there are so many baby birds in there, the humidity goes off the scale and the machine has trouble maintaining the proper temperature. It tends to get too hot.

To get to the point, the next night I barely got any sleep at all. Somewhere between trying to stabilize the humidity and temperature, I let it run out of water in the middle of the night. Now the humidity was way too low. I added the water back to the tray and closed the lid completely to wait for the humidity to come back up. That, of course, caused the temperature to get too high and the incessant beeping began again. I vented that and went back to bed. And another hour later, the humidity was now too high again. So I get up again and vent the humidity and then leave the lid just a tiny bit open.

Early Move to the Brooder Between the power outage and the constant struggle to maintain the proper temperature and humidity, I was very ready to put in the little guys into the brooder a day early. That meant that some of the eggs may not be finished hatching and it might cause them to die. I took the risk, and as quickly as I could I got the babies out and put the lid back on the incubator.

More issues last night with the humidity and temperature. Scott wanted to turn it off but I wanted to wait. One more bird had hatched out after I took out the original 52 and there could be others. Today I waited as long as I could and then opened the top to check out the eggs. I found a very healthy bird, the bird that could not use its legs and two more that were not out of their egg shell yet. I helped them most of the way out and waited. One of those looks pretty good but the other, I don’t know. He may not make it. There were two others that died in their shell. Likely all that fiddling around with the temperature and humidity hurt them.

It’s all good. I was not sure we would have very many eggs hatch at all. I am very pleased with 53 very healthy birds and perhaps one or two more.

So why do we have quail? Why not chickens? That’s the next topic.

Other Animals We Want Chickens Chickens are a natural as a “best animals for a homestead” in general and especially if you plan to make cheese. They can drink the whey and it is a great protein supplement. Another great advantage I mentioned earlier. We can use them to eat the fly larvae. Again, a great protein supplement. Less purchased feed.

Of course, the best thing about chickens is they provide both meat and/or eggs, depending on the breed you choose. We will be choosing a dual-purpose bird herd as we chose a dual-purpose breed of cow. We eat lots of eggs and of course we love eating chicken.

Chickens are a great first animal to have on a homestead. They are small, easy to learn about and fairly quickly provide food for your family. They do need a good shelter. Therein lies the reason that we don’t have them yet. Scott is putting all of his time into building the creamery. No time for building additional animal shelters. Well, except for the quail. He built their hutches in about a day.

To build the chicken facilities would take maybe up to a couple of weeks. It also means learning and studying a new animal. No matter how many animals you have experience with, a new one requires additional education and experience. Sometimes just figuring out how to accomplish a needed task is a trial and error experience over days, weeks, or months. Don’t get me wrong. I love learning about new animals and how to care for them properly to get the best result for them and for us. But it does take time and effort that we are currently investing in other areas.

Perhaps next year we will add chickens.

Pigs And perhaps next year we will add pigs. Pigs are truly one of the best animals for a homestead. Rumor has it they are easy to grow. Starting out with growing out small pigs purchased from someone nearby is the best way to start. Their growing season also intersects with our cheesemaking. Pigs also like that high protein whey. They are a natural addition to a cheesemaking operation such as ours. I can’t wait to give them a try.

There is a breed call Idaho Pastured pigs in which I am very interested. We shall see if I can find any in our area when the time comes. We will be raising pigs for meat. And rumor also has it that pigs raised on whey make some very tasty bacon.

Rabbits I just want to add one more that is a maybe. Rabbits. I think rabbits would just be fun. But I also thought I would have fun with the fiber goats. We shall see. You can only do so much. There is only so much time in a day. The best animals for a homestead list sometimes needs to be narrowed down to what is actually manageable.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. There are lots of animals to choose from and many breeds within each species. You will have to do a lot of research on what will work for your goals. We prefer dual purpose animals. We prefer heritage breed animals. These both fit with our goals to raise animals sustainably and with as many natural husbandry techniques as possible. Each of our animals has a purpose on the homestead. They all contribute to the health of our homestead environment. Fertilizer, pest control, weed control, parasite control and so on. All done with animals and some natural products such as apple cider vinegar and essential oils.

What do you think are the best animals for a homestead? What are your goals? What are your values? The last two questions define and support the first question. The system you put in place will be unique to you. I hope I’ve given you some ideas about how it might be done.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

References: * Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe * Why Normande Cows

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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What to grow in the garden? That is a question we all ask ourselves each and every year. There have been years of great variety. And then there is this year where there are few different vegetables. Today I’m going to talk through our process of growing a garden. I hope you will glean at least a little wisdom from our successes and failures and changes of plans.

As always, I want to take just a minute to say welcome to all the new listeners. I hope you enjoy this podcast and will subscribe. And welcome back veteran homestead-loving regulars. Thanks for stopping by the homestead for every episode. I truly appreciate you all so much. In these times of division, it’s wonderful to come together with peaceful-minded listeners.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates I have quite a few homestead updates as well as some reflection on gardening. Let’s get started. First off I want to invite you to hop over to our website and take a look at our “About Us” page. There is a brief story of how we got to where we are today. I think you might enjoy it. I’ll put a link in the show notes.

Cows and Calves The good, the bad and the ugly is going to be covered today. Let’s start with the ugly. That would be Luna’s left eye. She has pink eye.

We treated Luna this morning for pink eye. It’s a simple cure that just needs to be done promptly. Her eye is really ugly though. However, there is no reason to believe that she won’t be fine in a few days.

The Ugly Pink eye is common in young cattle. It’s highly contagious and is transmitted by flies. And boy do we have flies. I have a natural fly formula that gets sprayed on all of the girls twice a day. It only lasts 12 hours or so and most people would not go to the trouble of treating their cows twice a day. The standard treatment is some kind of chemical. We have the advantage of milking twice a day, so applying the natural treatment goes right along with milking. Another advantage is how few cows we have. If we had hundreds, natural treatment would not be practical.

I have seen some pretty creative natural remedies. We visited another dairy farm and creamery near us a couple of years ago. They had a machine that literally sucked the flies off the cows as they walked by heading back out into the field after being milked. Another solution is a kind of walk through fly trap. As the cows walk through the device, the flies are brushed off of them. After being knocked off of the animal the are trapped in a screen chamber similar to a minnow or lobster trap. The flies go in but cannot find their way out. These devices have to be placed where you force the cows to walk through, usually on their way to their food or water source. I hope to give this method a try in the near future.

The flies are really bad from June through at least the end of August.

The Bad Now for the bad. The artificial insemination is quite the learning experience. You have to catch the cows when they are in heat and get the insemination accomplished quickly. So far all of the cows are confirmed to have NOT taken on their first attempt. Three of the five cows that we are currently milking have had a second go round. Buttercup is not far enough past giving birth to Virginia to have come into heat again. That will be soon. And when Butter was inseminated again, the ag tech checked Violet and found we had just missed her heat cycle by no more than a day or two. Sigh . . .

The bottom line is that Violet and Buttercup are definitely not pregnant and still need to be fertilized. The Claire and Cloud will be due for a pregnancy check soon. It’s like a merry-go-round trying to get this done. Perhaps when we are more experienced it will go much quicker.

The Good Finishing up with the good news. Everyone is healthy and enduring the summer heat quite well. Excepting Luna, of course. The two younger calves are growing like weeds. They have such beautiful Normande colored coats. The coloring of this breed is so unique. They are simply lovely grazing in the fields.

The best news is the setup that Scott has come up with for getting the previous breeding bull, Sam, and Thunder, the steer into the trailer for their trip to the processor. I expect that there would be very little problem getting Thunder onto the trailer. It is Sam that is the problem. He has been rather wild from the beginning. He was not born here. We purchased him from a breeder a few hours north of us. They don’t handle their cattle nearly as much as we do.

From the beginning we were not able to get close to Sam. In those early days he was jumping fences right and left. He even spent a couple of weeks across the road in a neighbor’s field until we figured out how to get him back home. He just jumped fences so easily.

We have had him a couple of years now and gradually he has gotten over being so skittish – to a point. There is still no way that we can walk up to him or touch him. And if we pressure him in any way, he will still jump. Scott ended up building a small corral area on the end of the livestock trailer. All of the boys are in there right now. Soon we will take out Rocketman and Perrin. They won’t be making that journey to the processor just yet. We’ll save that for next year.

Sam and Thunder will be all by themselves in that makeshift corral. All of their food and water is in there with them. In fact, the food will eventually only be accessible if they actually climb into the trailer. After about a week of that, we are pretty confident that we can get them both to easily climb in the trailer. Cows are very habitual creatures. They are wary of unfamiliar settings but once they are used to things being a certain way, it doesn’t bother them. The plan is to get them used to that trailer so that it is no big deal when we start to close them in tighter and tighter and there is no place to go but into the trailer.

That’s the plan.

Fruit The blueberries are done and the blackberries are coming on strong. We have a ton of them. I checked them this morning and they are mostly still red. I may walk down and get a closer look this evening. It seems like some of them should be ripe by now.

Once the blackberries come in, it will be round after round of making seedless blackberry jam. Over the years I have perfected my techniques in making this delicious jam. I hate the seeds. Likely you do too. It’s a good bit more work, but most definitely worth the effort in my opinion. I may make some blackberry syrup and blackberry jelly also. Those are made with juice.

I have two pieces of equipment that are essential in making these tasks easy and successful. One is a steam juicer and the other is the food mill attachment on the Kitchen-Aid mixer. I use the steam juicer for extracting the juice for syrup and jelly. And I use the food mill attachment to get the seeds out of the berries, leaving the pulp crushed and ready to make jam. Yum, yum.

The strawberry bed is a disaster. We have plans for next year. However, this year I’ve just about given up. There are so many weeds that it is essentially a weed bed with a few strawberry plants. An animal was eating all of the berries as they became ripe. I had one good harvest in late spring and since then it has been all downhill. Between the weeds and the unauthorized eating of our lovely fruit, I’m so done with the strawberries this year.

Next year we plan on digging up any remaining plants and planting them through the ground cover we are using in the garden.The garden is amazing. It will be a big job to dig them all up, clear the weeds, put down the ground cover and replant. In the end, it will be worth the effort. Don’t you just love homegrown strawberries? They are nothing like those cardboard ones you get at the grocery.

Quail Just a brief note on the quail because I want to get to the topic of gardening. Tomorrow the current batch of eggs in the incubator goes into lock down. I will remove the automatic egg turner and close the lid until three days after the first chick is born. The first chick is expected on Saturday and Tuesday everyone who hatched goes into the brooder. Next podcast I will have an update on how many hatched. Remember, we started with 84 eggs this time.

The previous batch are nearly full grown. The boys are crowing and crowing and crowing. I’m starting to look for eggs. Any day now we could start to have eggs from the newbie hens in the penthouse.

The breeder hens are laying quite regularly. We currently have 13 hens and usually get 12 eggs every day. I’ll be adding in a couple more hens from the penthouse to the breeder cages in about a week and a half. It’s such a joy to watch these birds go from eggs to fully grown birds in just 8 short weeks. They are amazing.

Creamery I don’t have much to say here. Scott is mowing fields, moving cows, building temporary corrals, fixing fences, assisting with artificial insemination, making trips to town for various animal and fencing supplies and so on. There is always more to do than time to do it. Add to that trying to build this giant project . . . well you get the picture. Not much going on with the creamery over the last week. I say it’s too hot to be up on the roof anyway. Summer is truly here. It seemed to sneak up on us.

What to Grow in the Garden? Our gardens have evolved from four raised beds, 4 foot by 8 foot, built out of wood to 20 beds, 3 foot by 8 foot, with two 70-foot by 2-foot border beds made of concrete blocks. Our first attempts were dismal. This year, we are rocking and rolling with what we are growing. We’ve come a long way.

The First Attempt Those first 4 beds got overgrown with weeds and bugs ate most of the plants. I planted beans, tomatoes, onions, collards, brussel sprouts, cabbage, lettuce – oh all kinds of stuff. The only success I remember was the brussels sprouts and collards. And not the vegetables. No, it was the next spring when they went to seed. I got some really good seeds.

I don’t remember if we used that garden more than that first year. I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure we expanded what we were doing the very next year.

The Second Attempt The second garden setup was quite interesting. Our land is sloped. Scott built more raised beds. To handle the slope, they were built in tiers. Some were 4-foot by 8-foot beds and some were 2-foot by 8-foot beds. The narrower beds were for things like tomatoes and vines such as cucumbers and squash. They were built to have a trellis down the center. Oh and we also grew green peas in those. They also had a trellis. Everything else went into the 4 x 8 beds.

The paths went between the beds and there were 3 beds, set up in tiers as I said. So each row of 3 beds ended up being 24-feet long. Three beds were butted together with a step down (or up depending on the direction you are walking) for each 8-foot bed. This worked pretty well and we used it for several years.

I tried to grow lots of different things in these beds. In addition to all I mentioned above, I also grew spinach, radishes, beets, turnips, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Oh, and the squash. I tried lots of different squash. And I almost forgot the peppers and eggplant. And not just one variety. I would have three or four kinds of peppers, three or four kinds of tomatoes, three or four kinds of eggplant, and so on. And the lettuce, there are so many different kinds of lettuce.

The problem with a brand-new bed is that the soil is not that great. It takes a few years to get the soil to a place where the veggies grow really well. Another problem was we were still traveling back and forth to South Carolina. The weeds continued to take over by the end of the summer. Bugs would devastate the plants while we were away.

Those beds were made of untreated 1 x 12 boards. They deteriorated after only a few years. On to the next garden.

The Final Attempt Once we stopped working in South Carolina and dedicated everything to the homestead and creamery, it was time to get serious about the garden. In early 2017 Scott literally built a huge garden out of concrete clocks. I am into my fourth year and it is going really well.

This was a huge garden project. He actually leveled the land, cutting down earth and using it to build up the lower areas, so we would have a level garden area. No more tiers. Also, I decided on a 3-foot width for the beds after trying 2-foot and 4-foot previously. The 2-foot width seemed a waste of space because there were more paths between narrower beds. And the 4-foot width was just a little too far for me to reach across to the middle of the bed for planting and weeding.

Scott made the sides significantly higher as well. Each bed is three-blocks high. I think that is two feet. Each block is eight inches high; I think. It seems higher than two feet. Anyway, there is not nearly as much bending. The half bending can still tax my back some, but in a different way than having to bend all the way to the ground. Plus, I can sit on the side of the bed to rest my back. It is truly a work of art. We are into the fourth season and I am still loving it.

This more permanent structure and the fact that we could tend it daily if needed has made all the difference in the world. Over the past three years, I have steadily increased what I am able to grow. I have also significantly modified what I plant.

What I Used to Plant In the beginning, starting with the very first garden, deciding what to grow in the garden was challenging. Well, the first garden was pretty small and I didn’t have the space to grow too much. But after that, I planted many, many varieties of vegetables. I’m talking six kinds of head lettuce and six different leaf lettuces. Green beans, yellow wax beans and purple beans that turned green when cooked. I would have three kinds of spinach and three varieties of beets. I planted red, white and even blue potatoes. Two varieties of sweet potato. Turnips, rutabaga and two kinds of kohlrabi. Red cabbage, green cabbage and six varieties of Chinese cabbage. What about tomatoes. Well at least 4 or 5, perhaps 6 different types of tomatoes. The same for peppers. There were cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash and pattypan summer squash. At least 3 or 4 types of winter squash. Muskmelons, watermelons and cantaloupe. I tried corn a couple of times and there were always at least two or three kinds if not more.

Every year the seed catalogues had multiple pages with turned down corners as I tried to narrow down my choices. Deciding what to plant in the garden was an absolutely delightful activity. I just wanted to grow everything. I grew fennel one year. And escarole. Growing escarole led to growing another type of dried bean. I found this wonderful recipe for white kidney beans, called cannellini beans, and escarole. It is so good. I think I forgot to mention the types of dried beans I grew. Two kinds of lima beans, black beans and red beans. This list went on and on. And always in the back of my mind was a culinary herb garden. Oh, I grew peanuts the second year of the block garden. Last year the peanuts didn’t even sprout but I did try to grow them. I would have tried again this year but waited too late to order seeds.

Modification in What I Plant The first two years in the masterpiece garden, I planted as many different things as I could. If I had more space, I could have filled it. The soil was new and much of it didn’t really do well. I began to see clearly what required lots of work and little veggie and what was easier to maintain.

Lettuce is particularly difficult to manage. I tried succession planting. That’s done by planting new seeds or seedlings every couple of weeks. Theoretically, we would have lettuce over a longer period of time rather than being inundated with this highly perishable green. You need lots of refrigerator space when you grow lots of lettuce. Invariably, much of it will go bad before it can be consumed. Additionally, one of the advantages of growing your own lettuce is that just-picked, fresh flavor. If you pick it and then work through it over a few weeks, it begins to be as tasteless as the stuff you buy at the grocery store. Kind of defeats that purpose of fresh flavor and active nutrition.

With lots of different vegetables and lots of different varieties, it started to make summer canning an arduous task. All of the different varieties ended up being dumped into one batch of beans or squash and so on. The extra effort of trying to maintain all of those separate varieties began to wear on me. I still wanted the veggies, but did I need to try and manage so many different kinds?

Last year I scaled back on varieties. I only planted green beans. No wax beans and no other fancy colored beans. Just green beans. There were a couple of different varieties but only because I had left over seeds from the previous year. Red potatoes and Yukon Gold were the only potatoes. One type of sweet potato. I didn’t grow cucumber because I already had so many pickles and relishes. Sure, it would have been nice to have some fresh, but I couldn’t keep even one plant alive. They just didn’t do well. It happens sometimes.

The first year of the masterpiece garden, I planted a couple of varieties of sweet corn. But last year, no corn at all. I didn’t enjoy growing it and it has been a failure every time I have grown it. I still planted a variety of peppers, some sweet and some hot. They ended up being chopped and dehydrated all together. I have a mix of dried peppers that I put in soups, stews and crockpot meals. You never know how hot the dish is going to be.

Two years ago, Scott shored up the wall on the side where the soil was built up. He piled rich compost up against the wall to hold it in place. In order to hold that soil in place slanted against the wall, I needed to grow something in it. I planted four winter squash varieties, two pumpkin varieties, some old muskmelon seeds I had on hand and some old watermelon seeds. The winter squash was amazing. It overtook the muskmelon and the watermelon seeds didn’t sprout. In the end, the whole wall was winter squash and pumpkin. I was especially inundated with butternut squash. I also harvested some beautiful acorn and delicata squash. There was a significant amount of spaghetti squash. Much of that squash was dehydrated. The butternut squash was cooked, pureed, and then dehydrated. I measured the exact amount for pie – it tastes just like today’s Libby’s pumpkin – and after dehydration, I powdered it up. Now all I have to do it add hot water and it comes back to pureed squash in 15 minutes or so. Voila, ready to make a pie. Lots of work, but worth it.

I didn’t grow any squash last year, but the compost pile produced lots of volunteers. The cross pollination created some interesting squash. I sold some of them for fall decoration.

What I Plant Now Last year I scaled back on varieties. This year I scaled back on the different types of vegetables as well as limiting varieties. Beans, tomatoes, potatoes, celery, crowder peas, and onions. I also have quite a few herbs. Basil, parsley, cilantro, oregano, thyme and rosemary. The last three are perennials and I will have to move them to pots. So far, so good. The parsley and cilantro don’t look to good, but the rest are thriving.

Last year I had a very successful year with tomatoes. But I grew far too many slicing tomatoes. Mainly I make my own tomato sauce and barbeque sauce. It took way too long to cook the water out of those slicing tomatoes to make sauce. This year, I have only sauce tomatoes. They are doing quite well.

I am growing one type of green bean, one type of lima bean, small red beans, black beans, and cannellini beans. I started with only red onions but did end up adding a couple dozen yellow onions that I started from seed. There are three beds of red potatoes and one of Yukon gold. Those came from the potatoes I had in storage from last year.

I am growing six varieties of peppers. The difference is I am expanding on my dehydration plans. I have lots of each kind. There will be many, many peppers. This year I will dehydrate each one separately. I have cayenne, sweet cherry, serrano and jalapeno hot peppers. The sweet peppers are California Wonder bell peppers and sweet banana peppers. I probably won’t grow peppers at all next year.

Also, I decided to stop growing lettuce. We just don’t eat enough of it to justify the work of tending it. It only grows for a very short time in the spring. After year after year of failure with cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, I gave up on those. I would like to be successful with the cabbage, but these others just take up too much space and not enough yield. We also don’t eat much of these veggies. Although I would like to be able to successfully grow cabbage. I’ll have to think about that a little more before next year.

The last thing I am growing this year is sunflowers. They are giants right now, maybe 8 or 10 feet tall. There are no blooms yet but I keep looking for them. Some of these guys have to have reached their full height and are ready to put out that one beautiful and huge flower.

In upcoming years, I will be bringing back more varieties I have grown in the past as I will be growing more and more veggies for the animals. As we add pigs and chickens to the homestead, I plan on feeding them as much as I can from our gardens and as little supplemental feed as possible. The lower garden that has never been developed will be filled with pumpkins, squash, beets, turnips and the like. And the orchard will also provide much nutrition and calories for the pigs. The cheese whey will provide lots of protein.

Scott and I don’t need much from the garden, but the animals need lots. I’ll bet you didn’t see that coming. We may be the only people on the planet growing a few veggies for ourselves with the bulk of the garden being for the animals. What do you think?

Final Thoughts Have I given you some ideas about what to grow in the garden? No two families will garden the same way. What will you grow for your family? Likely you will start out as we did, trying to grow everything. One thing I have noticed with homesteaders is that we are pretty practical. After the first blush wears off, we get down to the business of growing only the things that we eat on a regular basis. Oh, I might add a small amount of lettuce one year or reintroduce cabbage. I most certainly want to grow green peas again. I didn’t mention them. It was too late to start them by the time I got geared up for the garden. Well, there is always next year.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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There is a lot to consider when planning your homestead. I thought I would go over a few of the ideas that we batted around when looking for land during our journey. There is so much to talk about on this topic. I’m only going to give a very rough overview of some ideas. Perhaps enough to get you started and on the road to tackling the learning curve. I’m also going to leave out some details on purpose. You don’t want to get too burdened in the beginning. Take your time. Think it through. You will come up with concerns I haven’t addressed here as you play out the scenario you envision. It will be unique to you.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let me give you an update on all the happenings around the homestead.

Garden I finally got everything planted in the garden. The last two beds have cilantro, parsley, oregano and basil. I have another herb bed that has rosemary and thyme. Many of these will be transplanted in the fall to a more permanent location, or at the very least, into a pot. They are perennials in our USDA planting zone and will survive the winter. Rosemary, thyme and oregano fall into this category. I also have some mint that I planted along the edges. Because the garden is made of concrete blocks, there are holes along the edge behind the sunflowers. That’s where the mint is planted. Mint can be invasive and I’m hoping that planting them in those smaller, contained spaces will keep them under control. We shall see.

I use the mint in lots of my lamb dishes.

Cows and Calves Claire came into heat so the first artificial insemination did not take. We had Yancy out on Friday and he gave it another go, this time with different semen. I don’t know if I mentioned before, but the sexed semen we purchased was not really very active. It was not expected it to work very well at all.

We purchased another round, this time unsexed semen from a different bull. When we looked at it under the microscope it looked great, very active. I expect it to take this time. Cloud also had a second go around, but with the same semen as before. Butter may need another go as well. If so, she will get the newer semen. And since Buttercup finally gave birth, she will be able to be bred in a few weeks as well. We look forward to a great calving season next spring. All is well in the cow and calf arena.

Goats, Sheep and Donkeys The goats are staying up in the woods most of the time. Occasionally, they come down and get some loose minerals to supplement their diet.

The sheep stay with the donkeys most of the time. Except when the donkeys come up to the milking shed, which is quite often. The sheep stay down in the creek bottom or up on the travel lane.

A few days ago, we had a lamb adventure. One of the new lambs got on the other side of the fence and couldn’t find her way back. The opening that was clearly visible from the inside of the pasture was nearly impossible to see from the outside.

After chasing her back and forth and up and down the fence line, we decided to try another tactic. She was far to old and spry to be simply caught with out some help. Earlier in the lambing season, I had to catch one and return her to her mom and the way I accomplished that was driving her into a corner and then grabbing her. We decided to try that once again. Scott created a small corner by tying a loose piece of fence to the existing fence at a right angle. I stood at the end of the spare fence and held it up, ready to close in once she got stuck in the corner. That’s all it took. She ran into the corner and Scott caught her up even before I closed the gap. He gently lifted her up and back over the fence. Mom and lamb were joyfully reunited a few minutes later.

Quail I put a new batch of quail eggs into the incubator today. There are 84 eggs in there this time. We shall see how it goes. Some time during the week of collecting eggs it occurred to me that these hens and roosters are very young. Sure, the hens are laying eggs. But are they fertile? Sure, the roosters are giving it their best shot. But are they fertile? We will find out in about 17 days.

Creamery I’m loving the small cheese cave. Scott turns the older cheeses once a week. I go in there every day and turn the new cheeses. And I must admit, I go in there just to look at the cave and the cheese. The humidity is staying steady around 80% and that works well so far.

The roof is progressing well. I can hear Scott hammering as I speak. Once he completes the plywood decking, the felt goes on and then the metal roofing will go on the part he is currently working on as well as the previous part where the cheese will be made and stored.

I love going into that building every day. What a huge project it is and so beautifully done.

Ok, I’m ready to talk about planning your homestead.

Planning Your Homestead – the Land While the term “homestead” is broadly defined and can mean anything from a quarter acre in the suburbs to remote living off-grid miles from any other human. One thing most will agree on is that there is a deep desire for self-sufficient living.

There’s something deeply empowering in knowing you can care for yourself and your family no matter what happens. In this day and age it is unlikely that you will ever be completely on your own. We still want our phones and internet. Creating your own paper products is a bit too complex. And the building and repair materials you will need will likely be purchased from Lowes or Home Depot or similar enterprise. No, we will never be completely on our own. But we can certainly make ourselves food secure. That’s what I’m going to focus on today.

How Much Land Do You Need? You can become quite efficient at growing vegetables in a small backyard or even in containers on your apartment balcony and supplement what you buy from the store. But if you want to take complete control over your food choices, you will need some land.

How much land it takes to homestead will vary according to what you envision as your ideal situation as well as the size of your family. It is possible to completely sustain a small family on a few acres. Of course, larger acreages provide greater flexibility and ease in creating sustainability. We started with 20 acres. That would have easily supported the two of us as a simple homestead. However, we had always dreamed of creating a small business to generate income. That is truly not necessary. When you grow and raise most of your food, your need for lots of dollars becomes minimal – as long as you remain debt free. It is true you will need some income. Just not as much as the rest of the world around you.

That brings up the next topic.

How Remote Do You Want to Be? When planning your homestead, considering how isolated you and your family really want to be is a topic of consideration? Today, many people are developing self-sufficient (relatively speaking) homesteads in cities and towns as well as in more the rural locations. If you are remote, what kind of access to power, phone, water, internet, and emergency services will be available?

Here are some other considerations regarding location.

Community Being located near other small farms and homesteads will bring friends with shared interests, opportunities for bartering, resources, knowledge and support.

Planning a Family? You can provide for their education by home-schooling, but as they grow your children might want friends.

Distance from Nearest Neighbor Independence is great, but our neighbors are wonderful. I don’t know what we would have done without them. And by neighbors, I mean they are within a 10 to 15 mile radius.

Distance from Hospital, Medical Care No explanation necessary here. What are you comfortable with regarding length of time to reach decent medical care? We are 30 minutes from a small hospital and an hour from some of the best medical care in the country. There are some homesteaders that are so remote that it is difficult for them to reach their property much less an emergency vehicle. We all make choices.

Access to Phone Lines, Broadband You might be planning on creating a little income from YouTube or some other social media where you need really good internet service. In this day and age, it’s a great way to make that little bit of extra income you need. My favorite YouTubers do not have access to enough internet speed to live stream. They have to record everything and upload. That’s so 2010s. But they make it work. You can too.

Landline phone service is available to nearly everyone. But cell phone coverage is another story. I have a cell phone but only use it at the farmer’s market. We do not get a cell signal at home. What about internet service? When we first arrived on the scene here in 2005, we had 28800 dial-up modem service. It wasn’t such a big deal as we weren’t here all that much back then. Over the years, internet service has improved. We now have access the very high-speed internet. It’s great. The internet is your best resource for gathering information, learning new skills, and certainly for education as well as making an income.

Mineral and Water Rights Be aware of mineral and/or water rights. This is especially important in the western and southwestern areas of the US. Is there any of contamination from toxic runoffs?

Natural Disasters What about the possibility of other natural disasters such as fires, tornadoes, or hurricanes? All of this depends on the area of the country you choose. What about flooding?

Specific Land Characteristics Do you want four seasons? Are you a mountain or an ocean person? These are pretty important questions. Obviously, we are of the mountain person variety.

Are there restrictions or covenants on the land? We have an easement on our land. That means our neighbor has permanent access across our land. We were restricted in where we could put up a fence. He had to have clear access to his property via our property. We worked it into our plan and it works for us as well as our neighbor.

What are the zoning regulations? This is not usually a problem in very rural areas, but keep it in mind if you are looking for a couple of acres in the burbs. A rooster or even lots of clucking hens can make neighbors into enemies.

Garden Space Is there a level – or at the very least – gently sloping space for gardening? The garden will need a minimum of 5 hours of direct sunlight per day. How much space will you need for what you plan on growing? This part may take some greater reading, study and research.

Crops like squash, potatoes, and corn can require more space than you think when planning for storage and year-round access.

Soil Quality Poor soil and inadequate water supply is a recipe for disaster. You can improve a small plot of poor soil with proper management. It just takes time. Your gardens will become more prolific over time.

Availability of Water Access to a year-round supply of clean water is essential to homesteading. Is water served from a municipal service, creek, lake, well, or will you create catchment system?

If there is a creek or stream, does it run year-round? Well-water in the mountains can be an issue. It might be a long way down to a water table. Check with the neighbors to see what they had to do to make it work.

Can the Land Support Livestock? If livestock are in your plans, the land needs enough ground for grazing. This is another education piece. Researching how much grass a cow eats, or goat or sheep. This varies according to where you are in the country. Western localities such as Texas and Oklahoma require nearly 10 times as much grazing area as in the southeastern United States. The land is also cheaper out west so it’s easier to get larger quantities of land. It all works out, right?

Do you have access to winter feed? I’m talking hay here. Either you grow it or buy it from someone else? If you grow it, will you harvest it or hire that out? Personally, I recommend hiring it out unless you plan on getting into the haying business. Let someone else have the headaches of keeping up that equipment. Give them half the hay and you are good to go.

Will You Have an Orchard? The space does not need to be large. Even a ½ acre can provide plenty of ground for fruit trees to fulfill your needs.

Will You Heat with Wood? You will want easy access to a steady supply of firewood. Will you be using the trees on your land for buildings? Take a general inventory of standing timber on a property. You will want some trees. In our area in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, the problem was finding the flat land without trees for the garden and pastures. Your mileage will vary.

Living Quarters Is there a house on the property? If no house is there a well, septic tank and power? If not, how easy is it to get them in place?

Final Thoughts Again, this was as very brief idea of some of the topics we discussed when looking for land. It’s a good idea to make a list of what is absolutely non-negotiable and where you are willing to compromise when it comes to the ideal piece of land. And give yourself some time to find the perfect place. Presumably you will be there for a very long time. You will invest lots of time and energy into creating the perfect homestead. Make sure you have the essential building blocks and go from there.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

To learn about herd shares: * Visit our website Herd Share page

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People are often surprised to hear our story of starting a homestead. It was a rather lengthy journey compared to what you might imagine. It was a lengthy journey compared to what WE imagined. And it still continues to this day. In fact, the building is going to continue for years. I begin to wonder if it ever ends and we just maintain what we have already built. I don’t know. That day hasn’t arrived yet.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week. And I want to share our journey through starting a homestead. Let’s get started.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Orchard I just picked blueberries this morning. It looks like this is going to be the last decent sized haul for this season. The crows have discovered the blueberry bushes so we are sharing with them now. Yet another batch of blueberry jam will be made tomorrow. This will be the last one, I think.

On the way back I took a stroll around the fruit trees just to see what we have. We are going to have a few peaches this year. There are a few apples but I didn’t see any pears, plums or apricots. And the cheery trees? Well they are a disaster. Scott will be starting all over with them this fall. He’s learned a few things and I think this time he will be successful with the cherry trees. But that also means another couple of years or more before we have cherries. Patience is a virtue.

Garden I’m nearly done with the garden. I have two more beds to complete. My plan is to have that completed tomorrow. I’ve decided to add another bed of green beans. I have the space so I’m going for it. The current green bean plants are blooming. We will have fresh green beans in no time.

The entire garden is just zooming along. The potatoes are blooming. That indicates we are coming close to the end of their life cycle. Digging potatoes is in our very near future.

The sunflowers are huge. Some are four or five feet tall now. There are a couple lagging behind. They are only a foot tall. Will they catch up? Not likely. They just may end up shorter than the rest. I’m so excited watching these plants grow. They are amazing.

The peppers are taking off. The plants I mean. When I first planted them, they just seemed to stay the same size. Now they are filling out and growing taller. Some of the hot peppers will get more than two feet tall. But most will be 14 to 18 inches tall and bushier.

The tomatoes seem to be struggling a bit. Any day now I expect them to take off just like the peppers. Some have a few blooms but I would really like to see them grow taller and fill out more. I think I’m just comparing them to the beans which are huge.

Quail The quail babies have made it out to the penthouse. I can’t believe how quickly those little guys get all of their feathers. They are just a little over two weeks old and fully feathered. When I went out to check on them this morning, they were peeking at me over the edge of the frame. So cute.

We replaced the entire group of laying hens. Well, except for the white one. I kept her just because I like to have variety. There are two white ones in the new batch in the penthouse. The only problem is I have no idea how to determine if they are male or female. The brown ones are easy. The hens have spots on the breast. The roosters do not. The way I determined the current white one was a hen was simply by putting her in the cage and counting the number of eggs each day. If there are four hens in the there and I get four eggs, that solves it. I did in fact get four eggs. Well there is another way. I can observe who is jumping on who as well. That’s also a dead giveaway.

The Calves Escaped Yesterday Scott spent most of the day fixing the fence down by the big pond. Wendell has gotten out twice by rounding that corner. But a couple of days ago, Luna joined in the fray.

Upon returning from a trip to town, Scott noticed she was out and returned her to her proper place. Later in the day I got two phone calls from neighbors within minutes of each other. The calves were out again.

This time it was Wendell and Virginia. They got all the way up to the road and even across the road in Virginia’s case. We don’t have a lot of traffic but still it’s dangerous.

So, they ended up locked into the lower garden – which isn’t really a garden. It’s just grass at the moment. They were locked in there until Scott finished fixing the fence yesterday. Now all is back to normal. The deer seemed to be a bit confused at the new fencing arrangement. She did jump over it – eventually.

Starting a Homestead I thought today I would share our story of starting a homestead with all of you. It is likely that many of you dream of having your own homestead at some point. Maybe some of you are already on the path and can relate to what I’m about to divulge. As I mentioned above, the journey seems to never end. We started out thinking we are going to build this static thing and live happily ever after. But the reality is that the building and rearranging, adjustments and redirection seem to be part of the lifestyle.

Our dream began over 20 years ago.

The Beginning . . . Scott and I met in 1999 in western North Carolina. Two people following similar paths meet and become life-long friends. We apprenticed together at a spiritual training center learning how to teach a meditation technique. This is where we reconnected to our hearts and desire to be close to the land.

During our training we dreamed of a sustainable farm homestead and communal living. We wanted to raise good food as close to nature’s intended way as possible. Experiencing loving relationships with others and soaking up nourishing nature helped us remember our kinship with creation. Two souls had found each other.

Three years passed before we made the first step toward our dream of starting a homestead.

Buying Land Was the First Step In the summer of 2003, we bought our first piece of land in southwest Virginia. It was 20 acres of raw land with no buildings. We rented a mobile home nearby. A little over half of the property was grazable land. The other half was wooded.

At this point in our lives we had a great deal of debt: credit cards, school loans, taxes, and now a mortgage. We set out to pay everything off in full. We would have our homestead — but we were determined to have it debt-free.

We both took on lucrative jobs in Information Technology just as the electronic medical records industry kicked off. Our jobs required extensive travel. We became frequent flyers and traveled all over the US and to a few European countries as well. Every other week we flew home to Virginia to visit our beautiful piece of land. Hours and hours went into dreaming about what we were going to do with it. It made the travel easier knowing we were building a dream.

In 2005, we bought our own mobile home and moved it onto our land. And in the fall, we held our wedding ceremony on the homestead. It was so beautiful. Even though it was November the weather had permitted the leaves to change very slowly. And with very little wind this particular fall, there were many leaves still on the trees. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect time.

Learning to Produce Food Our first experience with livestock was raising chickens in the summer of 2006.

The original contract with our employer was done. I moved on to a different contract and continued traveling. Scott was done with traveling. He remained on the homestead and built a couple of chicken tractors ala Joel Salatin. He raised, and we processed, around 100 chickens. We ate a lot of them ourselves and gave a lot away to relatives and neighbors. This part of the journey was just a taste to get our feet wet.

Twists and Turns and . . . Texas? Somewhere along that time period we paid all of our debts in full. Now we needed money for infrastructure.

February 2007 Scott went back to work . . . in Texas.

I was now traveling to various places around the country every week instead of every other week. I lived in hotels and airports. What a far cry from the peaceful life we envisioned. We persevered.

In 2008 we bought an additional 40 acres adjoining our property. We were in debt again. This time for more money than ever before. It’s a good thing that I got to walk around that property occasionally or I might have forgotten exactly why we did that. The “why” had to do with dreaming bigger. Now we were learning about raising sheep. Still very much a dream at this point . . . we’re still living in Texas.

The constant travel and living out of a suitcase got really old, really fast for me. It was fine when I was traveling with my best friend and awesome life partner. Doing it alone was torture. Within a year I was insisting that Scott get a job closer to home. If I was going to fly home every weekend, I wanted it to be Virginia — not Texas.

South Carolina is Closer Than Texas From the fall of 2008 until December 31, 2016 Scott traveled 6 hours every Sunday evening to Beaufort, South Carolina. A guy by himself doesn’t need much and a travel trailer we purchased for the task was sufficient housing. Every Friday evening he returned to the homestead in Virginia, six hours again. He did it alone for the first year and a half. Six months later, I got a job offer . . . just outside of Savannah, Georgia.

We moved the travel trailer to a park halfway between Savannah and Beaufort. It was an hour drive for me and 45 minutes for him.

Then in 2010 I got a job offer at the same hospital where Scott had been working for over two years. I jumped on that like a duck on a June bug. All of this unconventional living circumstance was worth the huge amount of stress that came with it. After all, we were now back together as a couple. That was great. We were at the homestead every single weekend. That was great. And it was only going to be for a couple of years . . .

Five years later I was stressed beyond my capacity to remain sane. I really needed a nest. For the final two years of working in Beaufort, we rented an apartment. Moving from 100 square feet to over 1,000 square feet of living space was just enough happiness to get me through it. In the end, even that wasn’t enough. In the fall of 2016, we decided to make the leap to full-time homesteaders. Getting the creamery built became the focus of our lives. And indeed, still is today.

The weekend life allowed us to dabble a bit in a lot of areas. Early on we were clear that raising chickens was not where our hearts were happy. Having them for eggs and meat for personal use, yes. But not as our central farm enterprise. In 2009 we put in fruit trees. That’s a long-term project that will continue to stretch over many years.

Sheep In 2010 we bought a flock of sheep and a donkey as a guardian animal for them. We proceeded along the lines of raising sheep and selling lamb as our centerpiece. We learned a lot over several years. At one point we had over 70 sheep. But an issue arose and in 2011 something big changed on the homestead. Love crept in, awakened and rapidly altered the homestead dream.

Cows In 2011 we bought cows. I wanted to make my own butter and cheese and I loved drinking raw milk. Still can’t stand the taste of cooked milk. With working toward homestead sustainability as part of our mission, we also wanted beef (and pork and chicken and rabbit). After researching every cow breed under the sun, we settled on the Normande. It’s a dual breed cow. A prolific milk producer as well as producing well-marbled muscle perfectly suited for beef. For more details on these cows, give a listen to the Peaceful Heart FarmCast episode I dedicated to them.

Suffice it to say, I fell in love with these cows. The issue I mentioned earlier was that lamb was not going to produce the income we desired – not without adding a lot more pasture. Another alternative arose in our dream talks. We could build a creamery and make artisan and/or farmstead cheese. It just happened to coincide with my desire to have more of these beautiful cows in my life.

To pay for it, how much longer are we going to have to work for someone else? Yes, that’s the decision that drove the planned two years of living in a travel trailer to a full seven years of craziness.

Peaceful Heart Farm Creamery is Born Finally, I’ve gotten to the part of the story where the creamery comes in. It has been a wild and varied journey getting here. But this is the one. Since December 2016, we have been investing all of our time and energy into becoming a local cheese resource for our community. We use traditional cheese making techniques to create our cheeses. We are going to produce the best cheddar cheese that Virginia has ever seen! With a slight tweak on the salt, I’m expecting my alpine-style cheese to be a winner as well.

The creamery still has a way to go before passing state inspection. But we are so close now compared to where we started. And so many adventures along the way. With lots more still to come.

What Else? At some point we added cashmere goats to our livestock. I’m a big knitter and dreamed of using only 100% cashmere in my projects. However, you can only do so much! For now, they keep our pastures clear of brambles and provide us some really great nutrition. In the future, meat goats will continue the pasture maintenance task.

The only food we don’t produce in abundance at the moment is eggs (and coffee). That situation was modified when we added the quail.

Future plans include having chickens and pigs. They are natural additions when you have a creamery. We produce a lot of whey that is very high in protein. Both the chickens and the pigs will benefit from that nutritious treat.

You see what I mean? About the building part going on and on forever. Who knows what we will build after the pigs and chickens?

Final Thoughts We spend hours and hours working, sweating and loving every minute of our life and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Starting a homestead was the best thing we ever did with our life. If you’ve been waiting on the perfect time to start a homestead, I hope I’ve inspired you to begin your own journey ASAP. It doesn’t have to be a giant leap into the unknown. It can be a giant adventure every step of the way.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Life and death on the homestead. It is our joy and sorrow in daily life. Much to talk about here.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and to say welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you so much for making this podcast possible.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Should I start with the bad news or the good news? There was only the one area of difficulty and there is so much good news to share. Let’s get the bad news out of the way and then move on to all the wonderful happenings on our homestead.

Quail – Life and Death I have good news and bad news regarding the quail. First the bad. We have a predator. In the past couple of days, we lost four birds. I won’t describe the details. Suffice it to say it was not pretty. We do our best to keep all of our animals safe. But sometimes predators are really, really persistent and innovative. We had a similar issue last fall. Just when you think you’ve taken care of the problem, a sly predator comes up with a new angle.

The quail hutch is two levels. On the top are two large cages for growing out the new chicks. Currently there are 16 on one side and 17 on the other for a total of 33. Actually, that is not right. There are more than that up there now. Before the predator there were 33 up there. Now the breeding stock has joined them. I believe there are 13 of them currently residing in the penthouse with the original 33.

The bottom level of the hutch had the breeding stock. There are three cages there and each had six birds. Two of the cages had four hens and two roosters and one had five hens and one rooster. Ideally, we would have five hens and one rooster in each of the cages on the bottom for a total of 18 birds. However, last year we ended up with not enough hens to fill out the desired scenario and two extra roosters. How did that happen you say? Let me fill you in on that part of the story

Last fall I learned my lesson about quail fertility. My last batch of 40 something eggs only produced eight chicks. I did know that the rooster’s fertility would diminish in the fall along with the number of eggs the hens produce. Once spring arrives, all returns to normal. That’s the normal cycle. In September the hens were still producing lots of eggs so I collected them all and put them into the incubator. Again, eight chicks out of 40 something eggs. The hens were laying eggs, just not fertile eggs.

After a couple of weeks in the brooder these eight chicks moved into one of the upper cages. We planned on keeping the hens to fill out the breeding stock and processing the roosters. There were only eight birds to begin with and the predator knocked that down to six. Four were hens and they filled out some of the breeding stock that we needed. But what to do with the two extra roosters. We decided not to bother with processing only two. They got added to the breeder cages so it was all one big happy family.

Back to the present time. One of our ladies just died for no apparent reason. That happens sometimes. And then, the very next day, the predator began striking. We lost one rooster that first day. The next day we lost three more birds. At that point, we needed to act quickly or lose even more of our breeding stock. Once a predator has found out how to attack, it will continue unless something is done.

The first step was to move all of the breeding stock to the upper level. We tied a piece of yarn on a leg of each of them so we can find them again. In a week’s time, both new and old will be moved to another location. We will restock the breeder cages and process the rest. Quail only live a couple of years anyway and the breeders are already into their second year. We will restock the breeder cages with all new birds from this batch.

Protect the Quail Scott spent most of yesterday fortifying that hutch – again. I believe we have the issue resolved but it was still sad to lose those beautiful birds. We don’t know what animal was getting to them. It climbed up on the outside and somehow had to be hanging upside down under the bottom of the lower level. It must have been hanging on with one paw and grabbing with the other. Anyway, Scott added another layer of hardware cloth to the bottom of the 2 X 4 frame. There is the floor of the cage and then another layer four inches below that. The perpetrator can no longer reach the bottom of their cage where they are standing.

Baby Quail On the upside regarding the quail. Besides the 33 in the upper level, we have 50 chicks in brooders. They are about a week and a half old now and already about half complete with their feathers. All chicks are born with down and no feathers. That’s one reason they are in the brooder. We can keep a light on them so they stay warm. Once they are fully feathered – which is about two short weeks for quail – they will be able to handle the changing temperatures just fine. Anytime after that, they can be moved outside. It is amazing how fast these little guys grow.

Cows – No Life and Death – Just Life More good news here. I mentioned in an earlier podcast that the vet estimated Buttercup was six months along in a nine-month gestation cycle. Well she was off by a long way. Maybe she thought the Normande calves would be larger. Anyway, Buttercup delivered a beautiful full-term heifer calf last Friday.

I named her Virginia. Scott named Wendell after one of the main characters in “The 10th Kingdom” so I picked Virginia as she is another main character in that TV mini-series. The show aired on NBC in 2000. There were five shows, each was two hours. I believe it is available on Netflix now. It is a fantasy fairytale miniseries. We have had it on DVD for many years and have watched it many times.

Buttercup’s Virginia is beautiful, healthy and a welcome addition to our herd of Normande cows.

This morning I had to rescue Luna. She had stuck her head through the fence and couldn’t get it back out. The slope of her head allowed her to push through, but the ridge on top is not sloped on the back side. Every time she turned her head to try and get past that ridge, her ear would get caught. It came down to getting out the wire cutters to get her free. I wonder if she learned her lesson. Some of the goats don’t. She appears to be fine but it gave me a scare for sure. She was really in distress.

Donkeys The donkeys got their nails done this week. Donkey hooves need to be trimmed three to four times a year. This time, while Scott was doing the manicure, I added a nice touch to their experience. Daisy and Sweet Pea usually just stand there and take it, but Cocoa and especially Johnny really don’t like this hoof trimming business at all.

While Scott was working on Daisy, I was brushing out the winter coats on Sweet Pea and Cocoa. I had already gotten Daisy taken care of while Scott was gathering equipment and getting ready. Johnny is too shy and so didn’t get his brushing. The girls have deep winter coats and there is a lot of hair coming out. I brushed and brushed and brushed. I got all of the loose stuff. It is not all gone and probably won’t be for another month. Once it is completely shed, the fluffy look will be replaced with the sleek polished look.

Garden In the garden we worked through the rain to get the tomatoes supported. They are growing nicely and I am looking forward to lots and lots of tomatoes in the near future. I will begin canning tomato sauce and barbecue sauce this fall. Gotta refill those shelves.

The sunflowers are amazing. Some of them are three feet tall already. I said I am growing these just for fun – and oh they are fun.

The green beans are blooming. I planted about 50 square feet of green beans. It was supposed to be 75 but I planted one bed with lima beans that I had lying around.

I picked a couple of sweet banana peppers and there are lots of cayenne and jalapenos coming along already. I didn’t see any blooms on the California Wonder bell pepper plants. Those plants may need to get larger before they can support those giant bell peppers. We will be inundated with peppers in the very near future. My plan for those is dehydrating most of them. I might even mix a few and grind them up into a homemade chili powder. What do you think?

I’m loving the woven ground cloth we put down. The garden looks pristine. Weeding takes only a short time and little effort. We shall see how this garden progresses. Will there be problems with disease and pests – more than normal, I mean. We shall see.

Orchard After getting the tomatoes propped up, we moved on to picking blueberries and strawberries. Last week I made some awesome blueberry jam and I plan on making another batch tomorrow. It is so great to pick the fruits of our labor. And so tasty too!

There were cicadas in the blueberry bushes. Those guys are mostly done with their life cycle. The noise has finally stopped. Perhaps some small fraction of the females are still laying eggs. Now the Japanese beetles are arriving in force. But we have some great traps that will help keep them away from the fruit bushes, canes and trees. Our fruit is pest challenged every year. Mostly by the Japanese beetles.

I also ran across a hornet nest and two small wasp nests in the blueberry bushes. No stings though. Thank goodness! I don’t respond well to stings. EpiPen at the ready.

Creamery The creamery has not progressed much this week as you can imagine. With the above activities, Scott has not been able to move forward as quickly as he would have likely. We’ve also had rain, rain and more rain over the past few days. If the rain lets up today, he will be back at it with gusto.

Final Thoughts That’s it for today’s podcast. A small bit of bad news and lots of good news. That’s how we like it. It’s an amazing experience. In the spring things change so fast. The trees are all leafed out. Just a few short weeks ago their branches were bare. The grass is growing like crazy. The animals definitely love that. And the garden has gone from a blank slate to greenery waving in the breeze.