Peaceful Heart FarmCast

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

To learn about herd shares:

• Visit our website Herd Share page

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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.

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, 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.

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

Patreon

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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.

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, 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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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.

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, 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.

To learn about herd shares:

• Visit our website Herd Share page

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• Leave a comment on our Facebook Page
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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.

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, 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.

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.
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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.

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, 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.

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

Website

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Instagram

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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

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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.

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

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• Leave a comment on our Facebook Page
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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.

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

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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.

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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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