It's a Boy! And a girl and a girl and a girl...

No, the Gertster didn't have babies yet (that is if she is pregnant at all, it's still impossible to tell.) We got a little impatient with the uncertainty of goat fertility and decided to look for some additional does that were for sure pregnant. And hooboy did we find them!

We found a breeder of Nigerian Dwarves and Mini Lamanchas on craigslist, and decided to go check out a pair of his bred does. Long story short, we ended up with the two bred mini lamancha does, and a Nigerian Dwarf doe and her baby buckling. I don't have any pictures of my own to share yet, but the link to the website of the breeder shows our ladies and gentleman.

Dreamcatcher Ranch

Our ladies are Fritzen, Chardonnay, Blue Steel (who will probably be known as Blue from here on out, poor thing) and Blue's baby boy, who has yet to be named, which brings me to the point of this here post. Check out our little man and let us know what you think his name should be.


Photo by Wayne Kiser, Dreamcatcher Ranch

Please cast your vote via comment from the following choices-
*Angus
*Blackjack
*Fergus
*Blackberry (the girls' choice)

I don't know why I'm so partial to the Scottish names for my goats, but it just seems fitting that an intense wee man have an intense wee name. Picture it Fehrrrrrrrrgus! Cohm an' git yer grrrain, lad! See what I mean? It just works.

Anyway, I'm looking for a little outside input, since we are completely indecisive on the matter. So leave a comment and be heard!

More info about our new, ginormous herd, pictures and the results of the great naming question to follow soon. :)

How to tell if you're in Western Washington

*If the plants on your plants start growing plants.


Maple + Moss + Fern = Fermossaple?

*When your field becomes a pond in the course of two weeks.


Before


After

*When your husband tells you that he caught crabs, he probably means these kind.


Thank God.

*When you have as many words for rain as the Inuit people have for snow.

*When finding a slug in your rain boot (the hard way) is all in day's work.

*When there is a coffee roaster and a microbrewery in every town with more than 2 stoplights.

*When you will forgo air conditioning in your car in favor of cutting-edge windshield wiper/mudflap technology.

*When you can name more than 10 varieties of apples and tell the difference between them all.

*When you spend more on espresso in a given year than you do on your stylin' Value Village wardrobe.

Uhg

Not to be a big ol' Debbie Downer on your Friday, but I'm here whining because I'm having some SERIOUS self-doubts about my ability to make this farm work.

There was yet another attack on our hens last night. Billy thankfully caught the &%@#er in the act and saved our hens - all but one. Strawberry, our sassy queen of the flock, is missing. We searched the heck out of the chicken yard, trees and bog last night by the puny light of our headlamps and found no sign of her. I looked some more this morning and still nothing. Looking for a buff-colored chicken in 3+ acres of brown grass & bog is about as fruitful as searching for a needle in a haystack.

The girls are still holding onto hope that "Berry" will come strutting back out from the bog, acting as though nothing happened. I was hoping for that too.

Wrestling with my demons Hens

Sometimes, when the wind blows just so it will slam the main door to our chicken coop shut, hard. And when that happens, boy, that door is shut, buddy, and takes a good bit of joggling and yanking to get it open again. Well, the wind was up a bit today, and we were out running errands until after dark, which meant that the hens couldn't get into their hen house at dusk, and needed a plan B night roost.

Two of the hens chose to roost on the top of the chain-link fence that surrounds the chicken yard, and the other four (who typically stick together), were found sound asleep in a large rhododendron right next to the coop.

As I'm sure you know, chickens left exposed overnight are very likely to become some critter's midnight snack, so we really had no choice but to pick them up one by one and stuff them into their hen house. For this noble, lifesaving service, the hens are about as grateful as your cat might be for you giving it a bubble bath.

When a chicken is asleep, it's brain is basically turned off. It remembers to poop and breathe - it is strictly primal. And so, when you attempt to pick up a sleeping chicken, however gentle and prefaced with sweet talk, its brain shrieks Predator! and the body treats you accordingly, as in, a flap/scratch-o-rama ensues. Well tonight I got the goods times six. Trying to move a sleeping chicken is like trying to dress a nine month-old in the dark - furious wiggling, squawking and occasionally, the infliction of minor injuries to the one doing the "helping".

In the end, the sassy six were returned to the safety of their hen house and will probably wake up with no memory whatsoever of their evening ordeal. I, however, will not so soon forget the experience of having the palms of my hands raked by claws, while having both sides of my face slapped frantically and simultaneously by chicken wings. All this hoo-hah for good really good the world's tastiest eggs now and then? Apparently so.

Booze News, Winter 2011

As with many things, the passing of time since my last wine/beer post had escaped my notice, until today. I'd like to catch everybody up on what's brewing in the Hollow, so here is the rundown of what we've got working right now -

*2 Gallons of Rhubarb Wine (everyone's favorite) started on 10/31/10 -


Egads! The flash really highlights the lees. Time to rack these puppies!

*1 Gallon of Rose Hip Wine, started 2/13/10 -


I think we'll do one more racking, then bottle this, as it it nearing it's first birthday. ;)

*3 Gallons of Fuji Apple cider, started on 11/21/10 -


We had to juice something like 70 pounds of apples to get 3 gallons of juice. I'm not even kidding. We're calling this batch "my" batch, because I asserted dominion over it when I decided to use organic maple syrup for the sugar instead of regular ol' sugar. We've had small samples now and again, and I feel like this is turning out to be our best batch of cider so far.

*1 Gallon of Spiced Gala Apple cider, started on 11/21/10 -



This too was part of apple-a-thon twenty-ten. 20-25lbs of apples were required to make this gallon of cider. The apples were grown by my husband's friend, and were so beautiful that it was almost a shame to juice them! Bill added a few tablespoons of Trader Joe's mulling spices to this batch, just to try it. We haven't tasted this one yet, but it smells good!

*5 Gallons of Pilsner, dubbed "The Billsner", started on 10/30/10
No pictures for you! Actually, this has already been bottled and is now carbonating, so there's really not much to see.

*5 Gallons of "Bill's Best Bitter" (beer), started on 11/27/10 -
Again, no pictures. You didn't really expect beer to just hang around here, waiting for it's picture to be taken, did you? Actually Bill has bottled this Bitter and very generously gifted much of it to his friends and set the rest of it aside to finish carbonating.

The dandelion wine has been "sampled" here and there, and is probably our best wine yet in terms of body, flavor, the whole nine yards. Our grape wine is getting better with age too. It's not yet anything to write home about, but it's definitely a drinkable rosé for the unfussy palate.

For those of you interested in the recipes used to make these wines and beers - I intend to post them. I only hesitate because it takes a good year (sometimes more) from the time I start one of these batches until I can taste them properly and report on their quality. I don't want to pass on a bum recipe, and I'm always tweaking, so when I finally write the recipe up here, I'll include all of my hacks and suggestions and an honest review of whether or not any given brew is worth the trouble.

In the mean time, we'll continue juicing, brewing and bottling like fiends. Tipsy, cheerful fiends. Sláinte!

Turning this Day Around

After the horrible start to our morning, I caved in and let the girls stay home from school. Scarlet said that she didn't want to cry in class, and Liv is always up for playing hooky, so we were planning to snuggle up together and ride out this rotten day in our pj's.

But then I had a thought. What if we did something kind for someone who needed it, to lend this grim day a spark of hope? The girls and I discussed what we could do, and we settled on buying some warm clothes to take to our local clothing bank at St. Michaels. We also bought some hi-cal snack foods to bring to our county food bank.

Our thinking was that, if we had anything to say about it, no other being would suffer on account of this cold snap. And so, we memorialize our lost babies with fleece jackets and granola bars, and hopefully bring a little much needed peace to our grieving hearts.

Another Blow

Our babies bunnies didn't make it. We had a very hard freeze last night, and I guess the nest that Cinderella had made for the babes just wasn't enough to keep out the cold. Poor sweet things. The girls are reeling.