Juneau

Mountains! Grey skies!

After leaving Juneau 2 years ago the day after our wedding, I finally returned home! Tim and I planned a stopover on our way back from fishing thinking we would have a week to relax before returning to the responsibilities of life on the farm. Turns out, there is too much to do in Juneau to recuperate from 2 months of confined living and long work hours! 

We enjoyed dinners and walks with our parents and a dog from each house, and got to catch up with a few friends still living in Juneau. Mom and I headed out to Peterson Lake Cabin for a night to appreciate their slow but thorough trail improvements then rushed home in time to meet up with the SEADOGS for search and rescue practice. Tilly got to learn about finding people in culverts and people above her head, as well as participating in obedience drills (we did okay for our first time after two months apart. Only a little sneaking around the corner to stay in sight of each other during the long, separated "down, stay").

All the dogs loaded into the back of a truck together and didn't seem to mind the new girl joining in.

While mom and I were out playing in the rain, Tim and Dad got right into the water with the m/v Sea Lyon to get ready for the sport fishing season. 

I don't think Dad's going to be able to get 10,000 pounds of fish on board that boat very comfortably, and 4 people will be tight living on there for a month straight! (Isn't that what everyone means when they say they're going out fishing?)

We did have some mellow laying around time, and what can be better than snuggling your childhood dog and your grown-up-life dog at the same time? Soon it was time to take one last walk at the wetlands, gather up Tilly's things and bring us all back to life on Whidbey.

While we were away fishing, my parents took care of the farm, then brought Tilly back with them to Juneau where Tilly serenaded Mom's office for a week. 

Closing Thoughts

On goat milking:
After trying out the milking experiment and proving the theory (manually inducing lactation), Nancy and I made the decision that the 1/4 cup a day over four milkings I had worked up to was simply not enough for it to be worth her scheduling around and attempting to maintain while I am away for the summer, especially while first learning to milk - so until next spring when we have real live baby goats, we are weaning off on the milking. We look forward to spring when (hopefully) both Petunia and Esther will be producing much more milk than that with much less effort from me. Through milking, Petunia has become more gentle and sweet, so that is a plus we can hang on to for the summer.

On the Canine Good Citizen test:
Tilly passed! We are now a fully qualified search and rescue team with Whidbey Search Dogs, with voting rights and everything. Amazingly, over only a few weeks, Tilly has gotten her bouncy paws attached to the floor even when being given attention by a stranger or stopping near another dog. Hurrah! She did great during her test, though I was fairly nervous and worked up. I would have benefited from spending our time before the test laying down and snuggling with her in the grass like normal instead of practicing the test items over and over again.

On my teacher test:
Actually the "WEST-E" which is the Washington exam for "highly qualified" teachers and to be certified as a teacher in Washington, I must first be "highly qualified" in at least one subject - and art is the subject the Department of Education instructed me to test in. Though an art exam may sound easy, in reality it is 47,000 years of history from cave paintings to the modern day across all the major cultures around the world; quite a lot to cram for a test on! In addition to all that history and culture, the test also covered printmaking terms and techniques, sculpture, glazing chemistry, and kiln firing temperatures, hazardous materials handling, weaving, carving, musical theater, digital file formats, principles of movie making and editing, art theories and principles of design... you get the idea. In Alaska, I had to take the "Praxis" version of the same test twice before barely squeaking by on passing. Today, however, the test went smoothly and I was immediately told I passed despite not a lot of studying and even less sleep.

What was I doing not sleeping before a big test if not studying you ask? The advantage of taking a big test on the way to the airport for two months commercial fishing in the Bearing Sea, leaving my puppy and farm behind, is there is little time or energy left for worrying about the test. The disadvantage is there is so much else to do!

With short breaks to run errands around town, I spent nearly the whole day from sun up to sun down out in my garden. The center garden circle in the driveway has long been a problem area. Being the first thing people see, I want it to be beautiful, and being a confined and defined area that seems possible. When we first moved in, the area had been tilled over and piled high with fresh dirt - I don't know what it looked like for the previous owners but I'm beginning to have a suspicion. After a year of trying to garden this area, planting veggies and succeeding with growing garlic, I let the area be enveloped by the pushy horse tails. Last summer Mum and I went about trying to tame the wildlands again by mowing down the weeds and covering the area in thick ground cover and many many many bags of bark chips. Even after all those efforts, the horse tails were determined to come back. In early spring, we did a little weeding and I planted five asparagus plants, two mint plants, and an old lavender plant rescued from Greenbank Farm. Other than that, I left the planting up to the wind. Beautiful flowers have begun springing up and filling in around the edges. A poppy is in full bloom on the downhill side, columbine border the rocks, and other beautiful plants form little groups around the area. After taking out another 10 wheelbarrows of weeds this week and adding a few more bags of bark, the wanted plants are well framed and its beginning to look pretty nice. When I come home in the fall I hope to plant more lavender and mint (deer deterrent) in a border starting with our neighbors side, maybe a lilac bush too, then more asparagus ferns in the middle each year. I hope when I come home the horse tails and quack grass haven't gotten too out of hand.  

Remember how just a week or so ago it seems I was showing off my nicely cleaned up compost area? Well now the mound is higher than ever with a freshly cleaned goat and chicken barn and those 10 wheelbarrows of weeds. I also cleaned out the far bin of finished-ish compost mounding up the potatoes again. I skimped on rotating the rest of the piles before heading out. Always more to do!

The potato bins are finally full to the top and have been well watered in. It is best to water deeply and thoroughly or not at all. The dirt was mounded up higher than the sides before I added the water to help the bins settle. I look forward to opening those big wooden boxes in the fall and seeing how many potatoes are inside.

While we are gone, the chicken coop is all set up for "U-Pick" eggs with a big box of recycled egg cartons and directions on the door. Hopefully our neighbors will keep picking up eggs and the system will work for the summer. I wouldn't want Nancy to get flooded with over a dozen eggs a day!

I also included some egg "safety" and handling information for those a little nervous about eating something that is so farm fresh and not from the familiar supermarket. (click below to expand and read)

The goats are all set up for while we're away with their feeder finally reattached securely to a new section of wall and a salt block to supplement their mineral needs. So far they still seem to prefer the familiar lose minerals. One thing I forgot to do is add a few new staples in the corner of the chicken run fence where the goats managed to push a hole straight through to the great outside world. I used bailing wire to lash the chicken wire fence back together around the corner post, but a few staples too would have really sealed the deal. 

The sun set around 10:30pm last night, so that's when I finally headed in to start laundry, dishes, packing, and cleaning. I know I should have been on this a lot earlier, but I got it all done! I even cleaned and organized my ever messy "farm room", cleaned off my desk, and swept all the floors! I think I am ready to go!

This morning, just as I was putting the finishing touches on cleaning and worrying how I would take care of Tilly before I left and how she would do home alone after getting all wound up watching me pack, Nancy showed up. She thought I wasn't leaving until later and was coming by to practice the morning routine before I left but it turned out to be the most perfect timing. Nancy took Tilly to the beach with her dog for a long run while I headed out the door and then brought her back to spend the day with Grandpa and her new toys after I had left. Thank goodness! Also Tilly gave me a very nice hug before I left, managing to calm her crazy wiggles long enough for a goodbye snuggle. 

I know my farm is in good hands while we dip our nets in the far North!

Recap

I've been getting out of order lately. Looking back over my recent pictures, I realize I never posted in April about the Search and Rescue helicopter that didn't come, despite our very cool gear and good positioning around the edge of the landing field. At the very last minute, the crew decided the wind was above their safety limits and had to cancel.

 April 21 Search and Rescue helicopter drill

The first weekend of May, Tim, our friend Zac, Tilly and I headed east over the Cascades to Okanogan Barter Faire. Zac stole the show with an excellent fire-spinning show. Tilly wasn't allowed in the faire, so she spent the day in the woods with her Eastern Washington foster family. Though they took great care of her, she was happy to get back to our camp site on Curlew Lake.

I also didn't say much about our most wonderful Juneau/Whidbey neighbor finally returning to the island! Nancy's son, Zac, and I spent the morning at her house clearing out piles of horsetails from the yard so she'd come home to beautiful flowers rather than a sea of green.

I had the most excellent birthday on Sunday; waking up to a delicious breakfast (after milking Petunia) of french toast made with our eggs and Amanda's pumpkin bread thanks to Tim, going to Unity together, stopping by a farmers market, (milking again), and having friends over for an evening on the beach around the campfire (between milkings).

Tim has our car almost back together again after spending the last week removing, rebuilding, and replacing the transmission.

And I have succeeded at my potato project, I moved the finished compost to the potato bins to "mound up" the plants after adding more side board, then moved the second compost into the third bin, first compost into the second bin and the giant pile of stuff into the first bin. Hurrah! 

Potato bins now half filled with dirt after adding three more levels of siding.

 The compost shuffle! Turning the compost pile and adding water as needed helps keep the composting process going by mixing together the inside and outside, mixing in air, mixing the "greens" and "browns". Also note the potato plant growing out of the middle bin? 

First harvest of the year! 

For the first time in a long time, I actually cleaned up the ground all around the bins as well, throwing everything in for composting! Now it's all ready to be piled high with fresh weeds and grass clippings and coffee grounds and - time to clean the barn? Here I am just trying to take care of my potatoes and somehow it leads to turning compost and cleaning barns!

Zac is kindly using his arm and to measure the height of the nettles around the compost bins - over 8 feet?

 Tim took a little time out from fixing the car to fix the goat playground. They had a teeter totter for a while but it was becoming increasingly sad and broken. The new and improved structure is a kennel they are loving going in and on, with a raised walkway over to a second platform. They love having something to fight over!

The milking is continuing to be increasingly productive with increasing time between milkings and decreasing milkings per day. The result is my enduring resolve to continue with the milking program. If I had to go the other way, starting with one or two milkings a day and gradually working up to 10 a day, every two hours and waking up at 3am to try (and fail) to convince myself to milk just one more time... I would not have made it a week. Below is my magnetic refrigerator calendar clock milk scheduler as of Monday. The colored magnets mark milking times during the day, with little fuzzy chick magnets starting and ending the day. The white inner magnets with lines pointing to times are my goal magnets, which I march my milking times steadily towards in 15 minute increments every day. Today my markers are on those white dots - 5 milkings a day about 4 hours apart. Tomorrow the little rainbow markers will start marching towards 4 milkings a day about 6 hours apart. It gets better!

Updates on the fleet and other news

In other news... 

The chickens continue to lay a consistent 9 eggs a day, allowing me to sell 4-dozen eggs a week and - in theory - leaving 15 eggs a week for my family. In practice there seem to be less eggs left over but maybe we're just using them before I notice. 

A little black hen has gone broody. I am taking the eggs out from under her twice a day, leaving the fake eggs for her to sit on. I feel guilty that she is doing all the work of diligently tending those eggs and I am steeling the real babies from her, wasting 3 weeks of her care and warmth. I am considering buying her some chicks or ducklings and slipping them under her when she gets to the 21-day mark, but the whole point of stealing her eggs is to keep from increasing the flock until I've killed some off. Also, I'd much rather get the high-quality chicks from Sandhills Preservation Center than unknown hatchery chicks from the feed store, especially when looking for particular characteristics like egg color. 

Our fleet has decreased by two cars! Grandpa sent his Lexis to scrap metal recycling and the Escort followed right behind. We say goodbye to our little brown diesel Ford Escort, one of only about 100 sold as floor models in the United States back in the '80s. Today, the part finally came for Daniel and Amanda's Taurus, so hopefully that will go back to it's home by Easter. Dad brought his motorcycle over from the mainland to take the Escort's spot. Dad also has spent the last week getting the lawn tractor spruced up and chipping away at the long loop around the yard mowing the property.  

Grandpa took a spin on the back of Dad's bike after dropping his new car off to the repair shop). Allegedly, this is his first or second time ever on a motorcycle. Way to keep finding new life experiences in your eighties! 

Joe  has successfully moved his new boat to the Oak Harbor harbor where he and Roni are set to set sail for a trip around the San Juan Islands this week, then road trip back to California in his new car. 

The new mandatory duty of all visitors has expanded from helping turn the compost pile to a choice between turning the compost and hiding for the search dogs. Tim, Mom, Dad, Joe, and Alice have all taken turns this month helping to provide some new scents for the dogs. 

7 cars, 4 moms, 30 chickens

- Tim is working on fixing Daniel and Amanda's car.
- Alice came to visit (borrowing Nancy's car).
- Dawn came to visit and met Alice. Dawn's step-mom, Stacy also came and was choked up by how much Tim reminded her of her late husband - milling away in the shop listening to music.
- Grandpa bought a new (used) car!
- Joe came to visit to pack up the truck full of fishing groceries, left for two weeks, and is now back to look at trading the Kachink Kachink for a new car and a smaller boat.
- Ariel finished the EMT training, top of the class.
- The chickens. Oh the chickens. There are about 4 crowing roosters now. They are calling back and fourth across the property to each other and one is peering in the bedroom window at me, crowing, then ducking back down again (big red rooster). They always look like they are up to no good. The other night, the big white rooster was bleeding from the head. Did a rat bite him or one of the other chickens? I was afraid we would have to butcher him just then, but it looked worse than it was and he seems to be okay now, though in the next couple weeks - as soon as there is a break in the visitors, we must butcher! Mama Ukrane is bringing her new chicks out in the grass during the days now. They are about 4 inches tall and super adorable.
- The other day, Tim let the goats out to eat the tall grass on the other side of the fence and they promptly got themselves on to the neighbors roof. The neighbor carried Esther and Tim carried Petunia back inside the fence. Naughty goats!

Alice and Dawn - Tim's moms

Dawn and Tilly - every picture is best with a Tilly!

Alice and Dawn Moms

Really purple potatoes - they came that way

Goat-pro: Esther is wearing the special camera saddle.

Petunia wishes it was on her head.

Tim working on Daniel and Amanda's car. After many, many hours, and many, many broken tools, the broken and seized parts finally came off.

When the 10-lb sledge hammer wouldn't get the last bolt out of the hole, Tim switched to drilling.

We celebrated Alice's birthday! Also Joe's birthday two days before.

Ronnie's birthday is next weekend, Joy's birthday on April 1st, and Dawn's birthday soon after.

The only parent not celebrating a birthday in this month-chunk is Rich, waiting until June.

To recap the month of March:
Alisha left on the 6th - Joe arrived on the 6th
Joe left on the 9th - Alice arrived on the 10th (Dawn 13-15)
Alice left on the 22nd - Joe arrived on the 23rd
Joe plans to leave around the 25th - Joy and Rich arrive the 26th

We were worried there that we might be alone in the house for four days between Alice's visit and the arrival of the Easter Lyons, but Joe stepped up and filled the void. Our solid streak of visitors has been continuing steadily since October and the month of April is starting to fill up with plans of visits and camping trips and chicken butchering as well. We have the luxury of seeing all our friends and family without all the trouble of traveling. We really should formalize this hostel of ours and accept that we will never be a household of only 3.

Where are all the babies?

Petunia technically has until March 7th to kid before I can give up all hope of spring milk for this year. Her teats are definitely bigger than Esther's - does that mean she's working on developing her udder and getting ready to kid in the remaining 10 days? Or is that just my wishful thinking and it is from being a year older, different genetics, non-kid related? I am putting off trimming hooves until I know I don't need the clippers to be sterilized and ready for an umbilical cord.

Three new chicks

Well, no baby goats to date, but at least the baby chicks are predictable, right? Mama Ukraine started sitting on the eggs February 2nd making them due to hatch on the 23rd, which was Monday. Sure enough, from under her we could hear peeping and after much patience, even saw and held the little ones!

Holding the red chick after several attempts to snatch her without being pecked by mama hen

One has a red face and will probably turn out looking a lot like Little Chicken like her big brother has, one is pretty black, and the last is cream colored, maybe to turn out speckled like one of the hens and the rooster.

The little red-faced chick from the December 1st hatch is all grown up

But now it is Wednesday and the rest of the dozen eggs that so promisingly looked full of chicks when we candled them a week ago are now over due and behind. Mama Ukraine is still sitting on more eggs than chicks. The chicks born Monday are already venturing short ways from their mom to search for food and water. She won't be able to keep them in the nest much longer and then the unhatched eggs will be abandoned. We will candle them again and see if there is any hope. It is possible to tuck an egg in close to your body and hatch it that way - humans happen to be just the right temperature.

Mama Ukraine's unhatched eggs

With these newest three chicks, we are now up to my hen-house maximum of 25. The older babies aren't looking so much like babies anymore, and one is beginning to hit rooster-puberty, indicating I can't put off butchering much longer. We are still getting about 6 eggs a day, from the same 6 hens every day, so I am spending today keeping a close eye on the nest boxes and trying to label who lays which egg. I figure if I try to mark them down for a few days in a row, I will know which hens will be joining the little roosters as fried chicken and soup.

In other news, I am finishing up my EMT class and working on my application for the South Whidbey School District after finally transferring my teaching certificate to Washington. I am also finally almost feeling better from the string of colds and flues I seem to have had. Tim is continuing to enjoy his work as an apprentice electrician, on the road to journeyman. Grandpa hosted bridge club at the house last week and is having his car fixed this week. Our house guest, Alisha, is getting ready to leave us for a new job and new adventures as we get ready for our next visitors - she says leaving has nothing to do with me accidentally locking her in the barn with the chickens for multiple hours yesterday. Tilly and I missed the last search practice, but spent Valentines night running up a hill at midnight with our survival pack and Tim gallantly accompanying us.

Tilly testing the new doggy survival bag for another member of our SAR group

Catch up. Eggs and Chicks, Goats and Compost, Visitors and Travels, Beaches and Baking

It has been a busy two weeks! Isn't it always busy? For living the simple life, we sure do keep things  busy around here. To start off the new year, I finally started delivering eggs to our neighbors! The idea is for Tilly (or a goat) to eventually do the delivering by carrying cartons of eggs in the snazzy new backpack we got for the four-legged girls.

The littlest roosters and hens are at their awkward teen stage, with feathers sticking out and colors changing. Unfortunately, the little gold chick seems set on being a rooster, though I am still hopeful it will be another of those extra-large-combed hens and we will somehow have 8 more heavy-laying hens. Mama and her five chicks (plus the three big tag-alongs from the last clutch) are spending more and more time out in the sun scratching for bugs with the rest of the flock.

Our flock is filling out the yard pretty well now with 12 hens, 2 roosters, 3 big chicks and 5 smaller chicks. Some day I hope to have 24 hens laying nearly two-dozen eggs a day to deliver to the neighbors plus my two roosters whom will need to be replaced soon for genetic diversity. Right now, we're only getting about 6 eggs a day, and the eggs are suspiciously consistent in color and shape, alluding to only 6 hens participating in the laying. I have nearly identified all the layers and it looks like the other 6 may be joining the 3 or 4 new little roosters in the freezer this spring.

Mom, Dad, Daniel, and Amanda all returned back to their homes after New Years, I took a brief trip with Daniel and Amanda down to Eugene, Oregon for a night on a special bunny mission, my friend Ray visited for a short night on her way through, Tim spent a few nights in Portland to visit friends and take a train trip, then I picked up my friend Alisha from the airport and Tim from the train station in one go and came home for a day or two before Tim's mom, Alice, joined us on the island. In the brief turn around between visitors, travels, and more visitors, I managed to finally get the barn clean! 

Petunia was her usual helpful self, insisting on riding in the wheelbarrow even when it was stacked to the max with hay. The barn, I'm afraid to say, was long over-due for cleaning. I cleaned the chicken part half-halfheartedly just before the chicks were born, in late November, but for the goats I had been using more of an "add more hay" approach for the floors. After many trips to the compost pile, both halves were thoroughly freshened and a small bit of the excessive stash of "winter hay" for the goats was put to good use as everybody's clean bedding. 

Unfortunately (for Alisha), I dumped all the hay next to the large pile of leaves next to the large pile of compost waiting to be turned. Fortunately (for me), Alisha is eager to be such a helpful guest and offered to lend a hand on the farm. Wanting to give her the full farm experience, I thought turning the compost would be a great help. Alisha imagined it would be fun, sort of romantic. Alisha talked about someday having her own garden and compost bins. Then Alisha talked about how really there was probably enough compost in those bins and they were looking plenty full. There's a reason I dread turning the compost - it is a huge job and takes forever, with much more to go by the time you are exhausted and ready for tea--er, I mean, it's a delight! I hope you will be the next visitor so I can share the majestic transformation of waist to productive soil with you too! The chore that is always ready for someone to do.

Esther stepped up to help with our compost-turning and piling activity by packing down those leaves and that hay to make room for more. Eventually most of the waist made it, more or less, into the compost bins and we declared the work "good enough!"

I didn't only force Alisha to provide me with labor, we also got to snuggle the goats in their nice clean barn.

We taught Alisha the proper way to hold a chicken, or in this case our most beautiful and tame rooster.

Tim demonstrated the goat teeter-totter and other goaty tricks (really that's about the extent of it).

And we took the goats for a nice stroll on the beach to our favorite climbing tree. Alisha is a photographer and graced us with mountains of wonderful pictures - another reason this is taking a little longer to put together! Too much of a good thing. 

After beach walking, there was just a little more to do with catching up on trimming hooves. Ideally, I should be checking their hooves every month about, or even giving them a quick look once a week when I feed them their herbal de-wormer, but I let it go a little long and petunia missed my great hoof-trimming day, so now I'll have to keep a better eye on them and make sure those hooves are back in good shape.

Alisha also gave me a hand adding 380-pounds of food to the barn. The feed store is having a sale and it's always good to have enough food! I am trying to keep better track of how much food everyone is going through. I think the chickens go through about 25-pounds of feed a weeks, the goats go through about 100-pounds a month and Tilly (not included in the 380-pounds of feed) goes through about 20 pounds a month. These may be optimistic guesses, and winter makes for more feed going through the barn. 

Tilly is continuing to work on her Canine Good Citizen skills and practiced her patience at the store while we bought all the feed. With so many visitors, Tilly has been struggling to stay focused and calm but is improving as always.

 After the store, it only seemed fair to take the little dog to the off-leash beach near town to burn up some of her abundant energy. Alice and Alisha and I braved the wind and high tide and let the wild one run. Tilly was promoted to an "available" sheriff dog, ready to search for the lost at a moments notice, which means any time we are called, she gets to come with me - even if it is only to sit in the car and wait while I help other teams with the search. This week we got one of those middle-of-the-night calls and drove through the fog to join the team in the dark. Tilly waited in the car and we called off the search before it reached her turn, but it was nice for me to have some comforting company in the car.

The beautiful and delicious bread I baked for Tim's lunches which I have no way of working into this post but which are so wonderful and which I am so proud of I had to include. Alisha laughed at how excited I was. They lived up to my hopes and more.

After staying up nearly all night with Search and Rescue, I was exhausted, in the mood for laying around watching movies and feeling like a bit of a zombie. Alisha and Alice lept on the opportunity of my weakened state and helped out with cleaning up the house and taking care of the animals. When Tim came home from work he was in worse shape then me, having caught some awful virus that has been making its way around the island. He stumbled in the door, had a bite to eat, and joined me in a very early bed time. He's still feeling terrible and keeping to the dark and warmth of bed.