Clean and Bright

I have been making my own cleaner for quite a while now.  Here is the formula I use:

fill a spray bottle with water, leaving enough space for the other ingredients that follow:

add about 20 drops of tea tree oil (great antiseptic)

2 Tb Dr Bronner’s Liquid Soap (I like peppermint, eucalyptus, or citrus)

2 Tb white vinegar

Ido not actually measure any of these ingredients, just guess.  That’s it.  Add the water first or you will be making bubbles!

Great for surfaces and windows.  You could drink it, but would not want to.

Recent Pictures

Have been very busy with holidays and visitors, but here are the most recent pictures of the farm:

Not for the faint hearted….

Charlie

Well, I had reported that we had nipped a potentially catastrophic goat problem in the bud, or so it seemed.   Charlie perked up and then went downhill. He seems to be slowly getting worse.  He has been increasingly lethargic, eating sparingly, and by Saturday had a fever.  Goats temps should run between 102-103.  Once his temp went to 104.5, we started penicillin immediately. Just like us, not eating or drinking normally will cause dehydration–making the situation worse.  By Friday afternoon, it was clear we were losing ground. We brought Charlie into the barn for a little specialized care.  I also called the vet, only to find out she was gone until sometime on Sunday.  On Saturday, we started penicillin and that brought the fever down quickly.  It did not seem to improve his overall health.  We also started electrolytes to attempt to rebuild him.  By Monday, I was talking to the vet and she came on Tuesday, scooped him up, and took him back to her place.  She was as stumped as we were. 

She called the very next morning to report he had passed away.  It’s comforting to have a vet who is obviously broken up by the news.  She said tests showed him as severely anemic.  We have no idea why.  We fed the right things, dewormed, etc.  She and I agreed that sending the body to the Purdue Lab was the best thing.  After the loss of 2 goats last fall and Charlie this fall, we need to find out what is going on. 

It is easy to have livestock when you get to feed them, scratch under their chins, and watch them play, but it is quite another when you have to nurse them, watch them suffer, and even have to put them down.  Having livestock is no game and they are not pets.  Most people remove themselves from the equation of animals living and suffering and often dying to insulate themselves from the realities of our food system.  I know Charlie was not a food animal, but he could have been.  It is hard to go out to the barn 3-4 times a day to give shots, force electrolytes, and watch suffering.  The bad comes with the good and both have their lessons to teach. 

We miss you Charlie. You were our favorite–the one that always ran up to us, loved to be scratched and cuddled, and was carefree.  We want to know what happened and why. We never thought coming to be part of this farm would cost you your life.

Kale!!

We are lucky here im Tippecanoe to have some winter “bonus” farmer’s markets.  Today was one of them, so I went down and saw some of my favorite local food producers.  My number 1 item on the list–kale.  I even e-mailed Ginny Markle and asked her to bring extra for me.  I have been quickly going  through my dehydrated stash and knew we could use a lot more.  It is the perfect “stealth” ingredient to add to most anything–just this week I added it to meatloaf and soup and last week to eggplant parmesan. 

Here are some photos of the mountain of kale I am dehydrating this weekend along with some honeycrisp apples and some baby carrots I got this morning. Kale is off the charts nutritious- a true superfood.  check it out for yourself:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale

adding dehydrated kale and peppers to meatloaf

Goat Health

Nearly 2 weeks ago now I went out to do the evening chores and discovered that 2 of the 3 goats had swollen cheeks.  I then inspected their gums.  Puffy faces or necks and very pale gums mean one thing–a high worm load.  This is caused bottle jaw. I called the vet the next morning and got 3 doses of dewormer–1/2 given then and then 3 weeks later.  Puffy cheeks are gone and they get their last dose this Sunday. The mystery that neither the vet or I can solve is why their worm load would be so high after only 2 months on our farm.  The zoo from which they came said they were screened and treated monthly. 

This past Saturday I was out there taking pictures and noticed that Charlie was a bit stiff in his back legs and not moving as usual.  Charlie is the friendliest and will always run toward me.  He did do that, but it seemed like he could not get his motor started.  Paco agreed and so we started penicillin shots and Vit B injections 4x day.  He bounced back immediately so we knew he was suffering from Goat Polio and not Listeriosis.  Find out more about both these diseases here:

http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/listeriosis.html

Goat Polio means he has been eating too much grain and not enough green stuff.  His rumen, the “stomach”  that breaks down a nd digests food, is not functioning properly and cannot produce B vitamins.  Untreated, it can cause severe neurological damage and death.  We caught it very early on and he will be fine.  Thankfully, we learned a lot from having goats before and are smarter now.  We discontinued penicillin after 2 days and have been tapering off the B shots.  I have given him probiotic paste every other day to get his rumen back in shape.

So, the lesson here is you need to read and know what the possible problems are so that you can catch things early and they can be treated.  AND, if you need to inject a goat–put the grain down and then do it.  The goat may not even notice.

Another Gorgeous Weekend

Eating Local Powerpoint Presentation

Eating Local Powerpoint Presentation

Pan De Muerto, Bread of the Dead

dump all the flour on the table

the butter, eggs, extracts, and sweetened condensed milk

the yeast

beginning to mix the wet and dry ingredients

squish, squish

smack the dough on the table again and again

Lily

this takes some strength

ready to rise

attack!

shaping the bread–Lily makes the tears

ready to rise again and bake

we tried to make some muertitos--but they just looked like snowmen

out of the oven--immediately brush on egg white and sprinkle with sugar

yum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pan de Muerto/Bread of the Dead

5 lbs. Flour

2 1/2 cans “leche nestle” —–sweetened condensed milk

15 whole eggs, keep the whites

15 egg yolks

6 1/2 sticks butter, room temp

Orange zest, to taste

Almond extract, to taste

Scant 1/2 c. yeast

Add a little warm water to yeast and allow to rise a little.

Combine whole eggs, yolks, butter, condensed milk, and flavorings and beat until well combined.  Add the yeast.  Put flour on table or other large work surface.  Make a well in the center.   Add the egg mixture.  Now comes the hard part.  Mix and knead until the dough becomes unstuck from the table.  You need to pick the dough up and slam it back against the table again and again.  Allow the dough to double in a VERY warm place.   I heat my oven to it’s lowest setting and then turn it off.  This makes a perfect place to rise the dough. When doubled, punch down and form into balls (size is up to you).  Use dough to form “tears” that cross and then a little ball in the middle (see below).  Allow to rise again, back in the warm oven, on prepared baking sheets. Bake at 350 for ???—watch them closely.  When out of the oven but still warm, brush with unbeaten egg white and sprinkle with or dip into sugar.

I usually use colored sugar.

This is Paco’s family’s recipe.  We make it every year to celebrate the Day of the Dead and to honor our daughter, Adele. It’s a lot of work, but well worth the effort. Traditionally served with hot chocolate.

Life and Death (and Compost)

Here is the compost part:

I have been listening to the NPR podcast “You Bet Your Garden” this year.  Mike McGrath is quite a character and is relentless in his promotion of using a leaf blower in reverse to shred and gather leaves.  The shredded leaves can then be turned into the best imaginable compost or used directly on the garden as mulch.

So, I investigated (nagged hubby) and found out that our blower does indeed do this.  I just spent 2 hours filling 2 gigantic trash bags–the REALLY big ones.  It was great to be working outside on this perfect fall day.  After filling the bag on the blower about 9 times, I felt like my shoulder was going to dislocate and I had to stop.  Hopefully I can put another couple hours in this week and have a decent amount to spread on the garden. 

I am sure that the neighbor who was also busy with leaves must have thought I was an idiot.  Who would try to suck up and bag 5 acres worth of leaves?!  If only he knew the method to my madness. 

Here is the Life and Death part:

I am constantly amazed by the calm and perspective I always gain by being engaged outside.  Today was a day to ponder life and death and what a better lesson could I have had then engaging in the cycle of life right here on the farm.  As I gathered leaves, I thought of the rich soil they would make in the garden and how useful their deaths would be.  Next spring, they would be followed by a whole new avalanche of beautiful leaves that would do their jobs on and off the tree and the cycle goes round and round. The ending is necessary for the beginning.  Or perhaps, there is no beginning or end–they flow into each other.

Today and tomorrow (Nov. 1 and 2)  is the Day of the Dead (more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead ). This celebration is a very dear one to this family.  On November 2, 1996 my husband and I lost our first daughter, Adele, who was stillborn at 22 weeks.  In a poignant twist, we have a holiday that perfectly commemorates the birth and death of our first girl.  As I collected leaves this afternoon I thought of life and death and the circumstances of my own family.  I do not pretend that what happened to us and Adele was meant to be or served some higher purpose.  But this I know, her life and death was enveloped into our lives and changed us forever.  I also know, the promise of her in the womb gave my own mother the strength she needed to survive her cancer.  It is also true that the loss of Adele brought us to the circumstances that brought our 2nd daughter, Lily, to us.  And I know, she was meant to be here and with us. 

So today, the land taught me yet another lesson.  Our lives are not a line that starts with birth and ends with death, but a river that flows from one body of water and into another.  Earth and sky are all the religion I need.  

Fall Farm Weekend

 

horton