Raising Meat Birds In The Fall- Shelter

     As I wrote in Part 1 of this series, we started raising our broilers in the fall. We have found it less labor intensive because the weather is so much more comfortable for us and the broilers. No more birds keeling over from heat stroke and we are not scalding and plucking, fighting our own sweat and bugs!

State Fair Dairy Products Competition of 2023

           Very few probably know this, but our state competition for dairy products at the fair is pretty well attended. I think the secret to that lies with the fact that all cheese plants fall under the same inspector and he highly encourages all the Kentucky plants to enter. It's an enormously fun mishmash of small, medium, and large producers, all in one room. Products processed range from fluid milk, to butter and cheese, to yogurt and ice cream. 

Maid-N-Meadows: Summer 2023 Update

       It seems like updates are becoming fewer and farther apart! I started this blog because I wanted to connect with people. I looked for other families online with lives similar to my own and found some! But I wanted to find more. And because I looked for others, I was hoping that others would look for me!!! I laugh when I write that because "me"/"I" am changing as I walk through the seasons of life. Who I was when I started this blog is not who I am now. And so when I began writing just now, I had to think about "who" am I writing to and why. 

I'm completely drenched from unloading groceries in a downpour. Why didn't I just wait? I'm a nut!

Dyeing Wool Fleece

 

   Dyeing the wool right after it has been washed can make for some interesting effects. It kind of has a mottled look when several colors are used and then subsequently blended in the water as they simmer.
     This makes for my favorite felting affects because the colors are naturally blended really well. Every time, the end product is unique!

      The supplies are simple and familiar.

• food coloring
• vinegar
• pot and water
•  washed fleece (about as much that can comfortably fit in your pot without being compressed.)

  

 First soak your wool in warm water for about 20 minutes to an hour.

  Then put about three parts water to one part vinegar in your pot. Add your wool.

   Turn your stove on to medium so as to bring the pot to a slow simmer.

    Now comes the fun! Drop in your dye and allow the colors to blend by themselves. This is a good place to experiment with colors and shades until you get the desired effects. If the wool does not sink and submerge the dye, simply push the wool down gently with a fork. Simmer for 45 minutes.

           Once done, rinse in warm water without felting it. (No friction. Just run it under the water and squeeze it gently dry.) Then let it dry on rack or somewhere it can drain.

            Another fun technique is to make stipes in white roving. Presoak the part of the wool you will be dying and then simmer that part in the dye on the stove.

     Take it off the stove to cool and squeeze out the excess water in the roving.  Then repeat the procedure with the next color.

             In this case, I am going to repeat the procedure one more time. When my roving is completely dyed I will rinse it off in warm water to take off any extra dye and then let it dry!

                                                      

         Food coloring is safe to work with and easy to use. It won't stand up to soap and washing or soaking in hot water. So, it is best to use these beautiful colors on things that won't require washing. We use these bright colors in needle felting cute ornaments or doo-dads. 

         Here we have two snowmen faces started! Needle felting is fun and easy and so portable! We should dig into what its like some of these days.

Maid-N-Meadows: Fall 2022 Update

         

     "We have come a long way, baby!", but somehow this year felt particularly challenging. Lol, I guess adding an expensive pasteurizer, a flock of sheep, more chores, more cheese, new recipe development and a first employee, probably has something to do with it. There was more fighting this year, fewer family suppers, and just over all exhaustion. I think when energies run low and there feels like no reprieve, tempers running short shouldn't be a surprise. The oldest children really held things together this year. They were the rock and foundation.

        That sounds crazy, to me because I never wanted or expected my children to be the foundation of our business operations. I wanted them to help, sure! But I wanted them to have a life of their own and seek out their own opportunities. Both Karson (17) and Jaden (15) pulled weight no one expected and well beyond expectations, while also holding a strict boundary of Sundays off. 

     They did the work they knew how to do and did it well, in a predictable fashion. And this is what held everything together this year! While Daniel and I burned out regularly, became unpredictable, and erratic in our function as we burned the candle at both ends, they were the turtles that just kept on marching toward the goal. They worked when they needed to and rested when they should have....and just basically showed up the adults in common sense when it comes to work life balance.

       Jaden brought home another blue ribbon for her cheddar to top it all off!

      Remember that pasteurizer?! Well, its 100 gallons bigger than we first intended! It arrived in July but the probes for the temperature recorder didn't arrive until October! So, we have yet to use it in a full run yet. But that has to happen fast now as we only had a year to complete the project, per the USDA grant. Its a bit overwhelming! But think of the fun stuff we can do with it! I can't wait for fresh mozzarella and cheese spreads galore!We can finally up our output too! 500 gallons of milk can be processed in a day!

       A few sheep are lambing and there is fencing to do. There are so many repairs on barns and fence posts....the garden fence needs repair. Our spring house roof is literally falling off! 😂 Laugh with us so we don't cry! This winter isn't going to prove much of a rest. But we have put our foot down, and the family is eating together again. Family movies are happening again. And life is just more cooperative and together in general. I guess we just needed a season of strife to remind us how much value we have in the slower pace. Karson will finally be moving in his own direction this summer. The younger boys are going to move up in responsibility, and somehow, we adults need to rebalance how we handle it all. Throw us some pointers if ya got any! Winter is a good time to chew on things like that.

The girls....chewing in the barn!

Family Get Aways Are Family Memories

            

      It has really been a crazy year on the farm. Lots of ups and downs but mostly lots of work. I wanted the family to get out and camp this year, but spring chores can be up to 8 hours a day. It just isn't feasible to leave under those conditions, especially when most of the chores revolve around caring for vulnerable, young animals. It's so easy to miss when they start heading down hill! It's just not responsible to leave them in someone else's care for more than a day, unless one is lucky enough to have an experienced animal care giver.

       So we worked hard this year but didn't really get a chance to build any good memories as a family. Lucky for us, the campgrounds clear out in the fall. Since we homeschool year-round, we have a lot of flexibility when it comes to school vacations. So, we booked a family getaway with Homegrown Hideaways! We rented the teepee for one-night, late fall, with the plan to hike Anglin Falls the next day.

        Let me tell you about the glories of Homegrown Hideaways! It's owned by a family, just like us! It's situated on a small farm in the back country of Berea, Kentucky. If you love alternative buildings, this place has all kinds....treehouses, yurts, strawbale experimental, and simple wood shacks. LOL, and of course the tee pee! They have some outhouses, but also toilets with running water and showers. There is a community building where you can cook and eat if you are too tired to cook over an open fire, or if you need a place to escape the mosquitos in July!

        Our children were so excited to try out the tee pee! When we arrived, we set to work finding downed wood and building a fire. The tee pee easily holds 10 people. It has a gravel floor but there is a vinyl mat that fits most sleeping bags. I would recommend a few more mats if you are bringing more than 4 children. 

         Anyway, with a fire under way we cooked frozen pizza, chicken soup, and sausage over the open fire. Solar string lights come on at around 7/7:30 and give light inside until 9. We had a glorious time! The children declared the fire cooked pizza the best they had ever eaten.

         The next day we made our way to Anglin Falls. The owners of Homegrown Hideaways highly recommended it and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect hike for a family with so many skill levels. The toddlers were able to transverse the entire hike without being carried, while the big boys moved ahead with walkie talkies.

        The falls were not running due to this year's low rainfall, but the rocks at the end are just perfect. Not too dangerous for rambunctious boys, but enough adventure to get them excited about the outdoors. We climbed around and enjoyed the view for a bit and still made it back to the car without carrying toddlers, for the most part. The weather was beautiful, and it wasn't too busy. My kind of nature experience!

         Then we headed home! For a family of our size, it was a fast and cheap getaway. I think we spent around $150 for the food we cooked, lodging, and gas. The best part was we didn't have to put up a tent and take it down and lug it around. I love tent camping, don't get me wrong! But for a one-night stay, it just takes too much time to set up and take down, pack and unpack. I think we could have saved $40 bucks if we had brought it, instead of staying in the teepee, but I think the tradeoff was worth it.

    And hooray for time off with the family! Time is so short! While we get a lot of time together on the farm, its these little memories that give us a break and allow us to reframe, rethink, and redream about what life can be together. :-)

Maid-N-Meadows: Spring 2022 Update

               Wow! Its been a minute, hasn't it!?  The last time I posted was in March of 2021, just before we slid into the rollercoaster summer ride with a 2 year old and a 1 year old. I have the drawings on the walls, a vast array of cups with missing lids and the 3 shoes whose mates are probably halfway to the ocean by now, having been lost in the creek, to show for it. We made cheese three times a week last year and needless to say, Daniel and I both had a melt down in July. It just wasn't sustainable, but I think the heat was the last straw. We dropped to milking once a day and finished the year strong.....and being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we applied for some brand new equipment with the USDA!

         You may have heard, but one of the highlights for us last year was being awarded first place in two categories at the State Fair. We won in the cheddar category and flavored cheeses category. Can I just say I cried my eyes out when Daniel picked up our ribbons and plaques? We have made our share of really bad cheese, fed a lot to pigs, and re-evaluated all along the way....to finally see that work recognized! It just made all the times we made cheese at 3 A.M., all the hours of driving to our rented facility, sleeping on the ground or in cars, weeks of sandwiches and coffee pot macaroni and cheese.....just all felt like it took us somewhere and was worth it somehow. So many tears of relief and joy and more relief! So many times I wondered if we were crazy to pursue a craft we knew so little about, while also putting our lives in such a crazy, helter skelter position. Everything was on the line.  This was the moment we felt our faith had rewarded us.

    Also this year, I learned to take time for an endeavor uniquely my own. With a flock of sheep on the farm and no outlet for the milk, I came up with the idea of utilizing the milk and wool in soap production. I enjoy dyeing wool and mixing up essential oil fragrances. It has been a creative outlet for me after many years of supporting, and nourishing the goals of my children and husband. Plus the sheep are so cute and look so majestic grazing in the field at sunset.

      We milk these East Friesians and hand wash/pick their wool, for a unique and homegrown product. Each one is its own work of art.

     A lot of things are the same on the farm and of course a lot of things continue to change. Jacob finished school last spring and started out pursuing his own adventures. The next oldest, Karson, is likely finishing out his last summer on the farm, this year. The years of raising a large family are coming to a close as every other year, the farm crew diminishes by one. It is a bittersweet experience, to be sure. But I am so proud of them and know they have everything they need to be successful.

      Daniel and I took some much needed time to step back from the farm and consider the big picture, last fall. What direction do we need to take this family and business? In the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains we tried to reconnect to one another and to our personal visions for the future. How to fit the puzzle back together after such a tumultuous summer?

      It was then we decided to apply for a grant for value-added farms, like ourselves, and create a new line of cheeses that enabled us to utilize the help of other farms' milk. And guess what!? It was awarded! A new PASTEURIZER and several more new surprises is coming up! 

      As we pondered our future, camped through a rainstorm, and hiked into the sunshine, a rainbow appeared. It was in that moment that we were reminded that after the storm comes new hope, a new day, a new chapter. While we are still in the thick of "weedy terrain" with small children and hours of chores, we still see a vision of the future taking shape where the farm can be of service to the community and a home to our family. So here's  to a hopeful future and the faith it takes to plod on! And wishing you all a beautiful and rejuvenating summer!!! Thanks for being with us, every step of the way. 

How To Catch A Swarm Of Bees

           Spring is hotly pursuing us and we are on the edge of swarm season, so I thought I would dig out a draft from 2020 detailing a hive of bees we caught. Likely it was a swarm trying to split from one of our other hives, but the principles to catching a hive are the same.

       Swarming is how bees start new hives. They are uncannily calm when they are swarming and looking for a new home. They leave their former hive home and wait in this huddled ball, protecting the queen, while they wait for the scout bees to find a suitable place to live. 

      

Maid-N-Meadows: Spring 2021 Update

           

      Daffodils, the symbol of spring, are finally blooming on the farm. It has been many years since the last time they bloomed in March. Usually they are fully bloomed in the third or fourth week of February. Not so this year! We had a snow that will remain in our memory for many years to come.

Life With Interstitial Cystitis: Part 2 "Recovery"

               If you read "Life With Interstitial Cystitis", the first installment, then you know my struggles of timing my life around pain. I had many "Ah-Ha" moments along the way. And there was even a brief period of time when I had a complete remission. 

Life With Interstitial Cystitis

           This is such a personal and for me, intimate topic. It speaks of a very private battle of chronic pain and physical limitation that I abhor admitting to. I have spent years planning my life around it's predictable nature, trying to outsmart the effects it had on my life. I have been silent in the presence of others and participated in activities I knew would exacerbate my symptoms because I simply didn't want to discuss my symptoms or complicate other's meal or activity plans. Eating at restaurants always seems to come with a painful price tag and physical exertion often left me sweating from the sheer pain it caused.

Maid-N-Meadows: Fall 2020 Update

             Fall is on the slippery slope toward winter and we are just barely hanging on! There is so much to do and yet so little time before the cold creeps in. Plus, this year, we are going to function a little different than normal and milk through the winter. That means chores on top of preparations! But lots of fun stuff to be excited about and excited we are!

Notice the corn in the background drying in "shocks". Local Amish farmers will feed their animals with this corn, over the winter.

Managing CL In Goats

       

 Talking about CL in your own goat herd is a subject that fills many a goat farmer with shame. No one likes to talk about it or admit they have it on the farm. It is a disease that is incurable, gets in your soil, in your barn, and spreads through tools as well. Quite simply, it is gross and hard to get rid of without hard culling and testing. It was a sad day when I realized what we were facing.

Dairy Sheep Diary Part 3

       

          We have had our dairy sheep for four years now. If you are just catching up, check out "Dairy Sheep Diary" and "Dairy Sheep Diary Part 2". A lot has happened with the sheep in the last 6 months. We are still really enjoying our girls and milking them more and more. This year we are using some of their products to sell at our farmer's market booth, along with selling the rams for meat.

10 Things I Hate About Farming

         Some days, I HATE FARMING. Some days I can't help it! I get hot, tired, and frustrated to the max. So before anybody gets any unrealistic, romantic ideas about what farming looks like....let me just burst that bubble really fast! Here are the top 10 things I hate about farming.

Maid-N-Meadows 2020 Summer Update

            I know! It is actually almost fall....just a few weeks from now. I wrote a spring update and then summer just HAPPENED! And doing anything beyond the bare minimum was just about impossible. But the heat has died back and the garden is dying down....we are almost caught up on the goat and sheep chores. This week we are cutting hay and working on getting the bees ready for winter.

        The babies have grown so much over the summer. Beulah will be 2 in October and Elora will be 1. I am both excited and dreading this year of toddler delight and mayhem. Little people keep things so stirred up! They investigate and move things constantly. The little girls keep each other in stitches or tears, depending on the moment. They are just a lot of life, all the time. :-) Very fun but lots to manage, as well.

    Jaden has become like a second mother. We often work together to get through cleaning, schooling, bed time and you name it. But she is also exploring new adventures when she isn't curled up with a good book. She makes the cheese with Daniel, most days, and today was practicing driving the tractor, raking hay. We are prepping the goats and sheep for breeding season and she is prepping her calendar for all those little babies she is going to midwife into this world.

 Jacob has kind of outgrown everyday life here. He works for a neighbor farmer and is gone most of the time as older teenagers often do. Karson has taken over the main labors of the farm. But he likes to work with his friends too, so this summer we arranged for him to work with a friend once a week. All the older children hang out with their friends on Sunday for fun, too. 

    But everyone gets involved somehow, somewhere. We had a ball this morning eating sticky honey while we worked to clean out the comb. Between finding old costumes and taking turns on the extractor...all were engaged. 

Family Homesteading = Togethering

         What is the number one reason we love farming and homesteading? Two words. "Family Togetherness" If the most important and valuable thing we do in our lives is family bonds and relationships, then I want more of that! When I ask myself what will really matter in 100 years, my answer is the time I spent with my children and the impact that will have in their lives and the next generations'.

Dairy Sheep Diary Part 2

              We have had dairy sheep on our farm for three years now. We have enjoyed our fluffy white sheep! Today, I would like to share a few things we have learned along the way and a few resources that we have been enjoying. I will also give an update on how our flock is doing and how well they are paying for themselves. Part 1 of our Dairy Sheep Diary is here and it explains why we initially got into dairy sheep. Lets jump in!

It is fun to look out on a field dotted with white fluffy clouds with legs! Our dairy sheep are high percentage East Friesians with a bit of Lacaune in the mix. East Friesians are often called the Holstein of the sheep breeds, due to their milking ability. But we also use their wool for various projects. Last year, we began using their milk in soap. That has been a fun project....a project that we are continuing to develop! We have also been selling the ram lambs at the local stock pen as meat and they have graded as Prime and Choice, which are the two best grades for meat. All in all, they have paid for themselves and a little more. As we have been retaining all our ewe lambs, it has helped to have some income to support their feed and fencing costs. 

Our first black lamb in a flock of white sheep!

     Our cheese facility is up and running now, but our sheep only produce about a gallon of milk per day in their prime. With only 7 lactating ewes, we do not have a holding tank that will keep such a small amount of milk cold. Growing our flock has been very slow due to a couple of different factors. We will continue to grow our flock until we reach a size that will make buying a tank practical. At that point we will begin making cheese in this dandy commercial soup kettle! 

LESSONS LEARNED

    The biggest lesson overall is that East Friesian lambs, ours at least, are not very hardy creatures. Our goats and calves do fine in cold weather, so long as they are dry and have access to their mother's warm milk. Our lambs tend to need intervention if more than one is born on a cold, wet day. If a mother has more than one and it gets very cold, I bring those lambs in the house! With a price tag of $300 per ewe sheep, they are worth too much to chance! (Actually, I am a sucker for babies and I bring them all in when it gets cold or I am worried about them.....my pillow is much softer because I am not up all night worrying about them.) So in conclusion, my lambs don't hold heat well enough to stay outside, and jackets might work well, but I have been too nervous to try them yet.

    Once these sheep are a month old, they are easy keepers. They are parasite hardy, have few foot problems, and require very little in the way of maintenance. Compared to boer goats, sheep are easy as pie. A shearing in the spring with a little foot clipping, is about all the attention they need.

     The other major lesson we have learned so far is that bottle fed rams can be a pretty bad idea. Our ram has absolutely no fear of people what so ever and is actually quite crazy. He once got angry at the tractor and really bashed his own head up because he would not stop ramming into it. Actually, he might just be crazy. I will not be sad the day we eat him. And I do say we will eat him because he is not safe to send off the farm to a market or as breeding stock.....he is just that crazy. Our other ram was dam raised and is quite docile and enjoyable to be around. But he doesn't have quite as good breeding traits....so we keep them both.  

Dairy Sheep Resources

      Some resources I have enjoyed since my first Dairy Sheep Diary are a few Facebook groups. Dairy Sheep Available In The US, is a group that helps folks find dairy sheep, which is helpful as they can be hard to find. Homestead Dairy Sheep is a Facebook group for general questions on sheep as well as a chance to "show and tell".

      For medication dosing and general vet questions I use the website "Ask-A-Vet Sheep". This vet gives good advice in emergency situations when my vet is not available. I love the variety of posts on here and find them very informative. 

        So that is the latest on the sheep! I hand raised 3 ewes this spring and I think there are three more with the flock. With the Lord's blessing, we might just about double the ewe number this year! Here is to hoping! :-)

    

Dyeing Roving With Food Coloring

         

Wool roving.

  Learning about dyeing wool is like entering an entire world of knowledge. There are so many ways to dye wool! Some of these ways date back thousands of years. This is truly an ancient craft, connecting us, today, to the generations of before.

Maid-N-Meadows: Spring 2020 Update

         Spring Has Sprung! 
      But we are still hunkered down, waiting for Covid to pass.....like everyone else, I suppose. How has everyone's spring been? We are really fortunate to have the farm to weather this "germ storm" on. Always lots to do and plenty of fresh air to do it in. The children were sporting their swim suits for the creek as soon as the thermometer hit 70 degrees!

     First priority, this spring, was sealing the walls of the facility. When our youngest was born, last fall, we were a little too busy at the hospital to get that done. By the time we got home, the temperatures were too cool for the wall sealer to dry properly. So we made do this winter, but the day the temperatures warmed up, Daniel was out there digging and sealing and putting a rock drain around the facility.

     Speaking of that precious baby, Elora, she has plumped out substantially. As of today, she is six months old and grabbing and reaching and rolling! She is a handful when she is teamed up with one year old, sister, Beulah! Good thing I have a lot of helpers who enjoy the tots!

           Spring is a big time for babies of all kinds, here on our farm. The sheep, lamb and the cows, calve. We got our very first black sheep out of an all white flock, this spring. Can't explain that one, but I can really relate to the original mean of "black sheep"! This sheep is sooo different and seemingly came from nowhere, genetically speaking. I am very excited about the wool, though. He is definitely staying on the farm!

         Red Ears, the cow, welcomed a beautiful little heifer to the farm, early this month. She is just the cutest little thing and a real live wire. She comes into the holding pen with her mother during milking, just like she is part of the team! We really love when this arrangement works because the calves are naturally comfortable with the sights and sounds of the milking parlor.

  So we have been busy around here! But before I sign off I want to give some recognition to Karson, who turns 15 this year. He has taken up welding and is doing a pretty good job! He has been building gates and doing odds and ends repairs for us this spring. Check out these gates he built! The little notch opening there is so the goats can get out to the big field without the cows getting in the goat barn. (Cow piles are a whole lot messier than goat piles! We prefer the cows hang out in their own barn. Plus cows don't really care to watch where they are going and I am always afraid they will step on baby goats!)

   We are looking forward to seeing everyone again at the farmer's markets and just plain being back out to meet and greet everyone. Hope everyone has stayed safe and looking forward to the summer! See y'all soon!