Well, it's fall here on the farm. The leaves are falling from the oak, things are getting a little greener, the mornings are frequently cold and afternoons hot, but mostly around here fall means babies. You might not think about it but here in on the farm fall means batches of chicks to be raised, winter gardens bountiful and lazy must be planted, and it's breeding season. This is our first year breeding our does since I bought them in milk this spring. Rosey, Posey, and the adorable Taffy will all be bred to Tahoe.

I bought Tahoe this spring when he was only 8 weeks old. He came as an unexpected addition to a Nigerian Dwarf milk doe I bought. I seriously considered wethering him and taking him to the auction but he was so cute and sweet. He frequently escaped and he was so friendly I would pick him up like a baby and carry him all over the farm. After we realized that a Nigerian Dwarf doe wouldn't give enough milk to sustain a family of four we traded his mom for a young La Mancha doe named Taffy. I chose to keep Tahoe for breeding because of his smaller size and friendly personality. I didn't realize that Nigerian Dwarf goats could become fertile as young as 8 weeks old, and this lack of oversight means that Posey may be giving us fall kids instead of spring kids, whoops! This will be Taffy's first freshening and I'm excited to see how she milks, he mother and sister are 2 gallon a day milkers! Rosey also seems to have gone into heat so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in five months we'll have a bunch of sweet kids playing king of the mountain in our pasture.

Fall also brings rain and mud. The pond is back and the stream is half full. The stream bed is going to have to be dug out, it's running slowly. It's been raining for a couple days and the mud at the pasture gate is two inches deep already. Of course I was busy playing this summer and still need to gravel the pens, thank Grilled Cheesus for 4WD. I've also been thinking a lot about kidding season and am looking forward to the cooler weather allowing us to build some new pens. The ground's much easier to work now that it's soft too.

One of my favorite things about fall is not having to water the as garden often. I've started putting in the fall and winter crops. Lots of root vegetables, chard, and some herbs. I let the lettuce reseed itself and our soybeans are starting to produce. The pineapple sage I've been cooking with all summer has beautiful delicate scarlet flowers. Tiny radish and carrot seedlings were brutally thinned by the chickens a few days ago so I'm going to have to reinforce the garden fence. Chickens are devious about sneaking in and snacking on the sprouting seedlings. Stay tuned for pictures of the newest residents of the farm...Snowflake is the proud nanny of a new batch of chicks and the babies Mama hen has been raising in the garden have fancy feathered feet.

Buckshot Gets Bored

Recently my escape artist horse has had a much harder time getting out. Since he can't leave he's found some new ways to amuse himself around the farm. He's gotten into the chicken coop and I mean all the way in! He's so big the roof was resting on his butt and he got a couple scratches for his effort. I worked quite a while cleaning paddocks today getting them ready to put gravel in to help with drainage. My nosy horse came to "help" by knocking over the muck buckets after I filled them up. He also "helped" Mango finish her food even though she didn't offer. Buckshot has always been very nosy and will come snoop on the house and look in our windows. Two mornings ago I heard weird thumping on the porch but the dogs and cats were all in. When I went to let the dogs out a large section of our screened in porch was missing the screen. I am not positive that he did it, but my dear husband is convinced that the noise I heard was Buckshot rubbing his booty on the porch to scratch it and tearing down the screen. I thought it sounded like something was in the porch maybe a raccoon or possum. Whatever it was I still have to mend the porch.

Buckshot the Bad Alarm Clock

Oh man, where do I even begin this time. Buckshot, my very nosy horse, has been up to no good lately. It all started with him learning that if he leaned on the gate it would eventually open (since remedied) and he could leave. His first trip got me an early phone call from Animal Control. This time I was woken up at 5:50 am by someone laying on their horn in my driveway. "Hey do you have a horse?" someone's yelling. I fly out of bed and grab the nearest article of clothing, running for my boots and the back door. About the time I'm headed out the wide open back gate I realize that the "clothes" I pulled on is a skanky sundress I wear before bed, I keep heading down the driveway towards a large delivery van and a huge 300 pound guy with super long dreads down his back. He's yelling about a horse and pointing towards direct buy around the corner. I turn and there is Buckshot walking as fast as he can down the side walk heading towards the freeway exit ramp and morning commuters on the 680. The giant guy offers me a ride and I am thinking "oh hell no" and my kids are asleep in the house, but I have no chance of catching Buck before he gets to the freeway so I hop in anyways. So we go tearing out of the driveway and hauling tail around the corner Buckshot spots us and spooks. Buckshots answer to every thing scary is "speed" so of course he starts trotting up the 680 ramp heading straight for 70 mph traffic. I jump out of the van and run catching him about 30 ft up the ramp. In my panic I hadn't grabbed a rope so I start home holding him by his halter, not very safe but I have no choice. Buckshot decides he's scared of the squishy direct buy grass so I switch him sides. When we come to the end of the sidewalk there is a teeny bit of water in the gutter, maybe 1/4 inch, Buckshot is petrified and refuses to walk over the water and leaps over the gutter instead, somehow I hang on and don't get my arm pulled out of the socket. When I get him back home he's "scared" of the gate and doesn't want to go in. After a quick reminder that I am in no mood to tolerate any funny business he walks through with no problem. Now that we know he can open the gate for we've added an extra lock you need thumbs to use. I give it a month!

Buckshot's Latest Adventure

My horse Buckshot is a pretty funny fellow. He likes to go for walks and will test the gates to see if they're locked. Evidently he found an open gate this morning because at 7:55 AM I received a phone call. "Hi this is Solano County Animal Control, do you own a white horse with brown spots?" I immediately started running for the door "Yes, I do. Where is he?", they tell me "In front of the fire station". I am hauling ass out the back door headed across the pasture when I see Buckshot and two escorts standing at the pasture gate. Some nice men (they must be my neighbors down the street) saw him walking down the sidewalk headed towards the underpass (and the freeway) and walked him home, the guys called the police when they realized that the pasture gate was locked and couldn't figure out how to get him back in. I guess he didn't bother to mention that he had come out the backyard gate and down the driveway. We've found him in the driveway a couple of times and I am starting to wonder if he can open the backyard gate. At least he wasn't at the bar again this time! After all this when I was walking him back in he kept giving me this look like "What Mom? I stayed on the sidewalk." He was being so calm and sweet that I hopped on for a quick ride around the yard and cuddle before giving him his breakfast. That was probably his plan all along. I can see him out in the pasture plotting "If I open the gate and leave someone will call Mom to pick me up. Then I'll make cute faces until she gives me food."

Watermelon Pickles

I have been wanting to try canning but have been nervous about screwing it up and wasting food or worse making us all sick. So I decided to try making watermelon pickles. You make the pickles with the watermelon rind, I figured at least if I totally screw up it's something I would have thrown to the chickens anyways. I did end up screwing up but it wasn't a big deal (I overcooked them but they still taste okay) better safe than sorry right? I didn't buy any special equipment other than jars. I used my big camping kettle with a veggie steamer rack in the bottom and some tongs to fish out the super hot jars. This worked fine for doing just a few pints, but I don't think the steamer rack would hold up to pint jars or that my pot will be big enough for that matter. I used the rind from one watermelon it yielded 3 pints of finished product and we sampled the last few pieces that didn't fit in the jar, mmm. Watermelon pickles it turns out are sweet and have a hint of clove. I don't usually care for sweet cucumber pickles but these actually taste pretty good! They look pretty in the jar so I think a jar or two will go towards what I want to give away for the holidays. Here's a pic of the finished product and the recipe as found in the Third Edition of Putting Food By by Hertzberg, Vaughn, and Greene.



Recipe: Watermelon Pickles

8 cups prepared watermelon rind
1/2 cup pickling salt
4 cups cold water
4 teaspoons whole cloves
4 cups sugar
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water

Step 1) Prep the rind: Trim all green and pick off rind and cut into 1 inch cubes, thick rind is best.

Step 2) Dissolve salt in cold water pour over rind cubes (add more water to cover if needed). Let stand 5-6 hours

Step 3) Drain and rinse well. Cover with fresh water and cook until barely tender no more than 10 minutes (err on the side of crispness), drain

Step 4) Combine sugar, vinegar, and water, add cloves tied into a small cloth bag (I used cheese cloth), and bring to boiling, simmer for 5 minutes, pour over rind cubes and let stand overnight.

Step 5) Bring all to boiling and cook until rind is translucent but not at all mushy, about 10 minutes.

Step 6) Remove spice bag and pack rind cubes in hot sterilized pint jars, add boiling syrup leaving 1/2 inch of head room (tip- divide the syrup evenly among the jars then top pff with water if needed).

Step 7) Process in a Boiling Water Bath for 10 minutes Remember to Adjust for Altitude!! Remove jars and complete seals if necessary. Makes about 4 pints (mine only came out 3)

Pass the Cheese Please Part Douche

I recieved some feed back on my cheese I sold...it wasn't very good. Evidently my cheese wasn't how the customer had imagined it would be and "didn't taste like his grandma had made it when he was a child". I made him two 1 pound batches, one pound of garlic farmers cheese (tasty but plain) and a pound of (complete pain in the booty to make) creamy goat cheese with fresh herbs from my garden. At first I was a little disappointed when I heard my new customer hadn't liked my cheese, I had worked very hard on it. Then I realized what the crap!! He didn't like my cheese because it didn't live up to a childhood memory that he had never mentioned?!?! Ain't that some shit! Now if he had told me that his grandma made some special cheese when he was a kid back in the stone age, I would have done my very best to replicate it (Pterodactyl turds and all). But given that I had no prior knowledge that my cheese would be judged against the taste of a sweet memory and he didn't specify what kind of cheese he wanted: you get what you get, now shut it! Since I sold myself short and spent hours making cheese then sold it for less than the cost of the milk to make it I won't be doing this again anytime soon and won't be selling to that guy again period! He didn't even bother to return the brand new container I sent the creamy goat cheese home in. I do plan to continue making cheese and selling it but this first experience has soured me for the moment. The icing on the cake was when my sweet hubby suggested that I ask the 20 year old turd working the cheese department at Nugget for advice "because he had been to a cheese factory probably". I know he's just trying to help but when my ego is bruised he should be saying "pass the cheese please" and "this is great babe, that guy wouldn't know good cheese if we hit him with it" which I would then suggest is an excellent idea! The next cheese I make should be eaten with my girlfriends and washed down with wine, they I'm sure will appreciate all my hard work!

Quick No Mess Mexican Pizza

One of my favorite fast and easy lunches! It only takes a couple minutes to prep and is done in the oven in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
Tortillas
Pesto
1 can refried beans
Veggie toppings
Shredded Cheese

Directions: Cover a cookie sheet in foil. Line tortillas up on the foil and spray with cooking spray (I like to use the olive oil only kind), flip the tortillas.

Spread pesto and beans evenly on the tortillas



Top with veggies. Red onions and tomatoes are my favorite for this.



And LOTS of cheese!



Put "lids" on the quesadillas and spray with cooking spray again.



Bake in a 400 degree oven about 10 minutes until tortillas are crispy and cheese is melty. Enjoy!