Thankful for Rain!

My poor little mint and lavender starts were suffering in the hot sun, despite my occasional watering under Tim's concerned watch (if the ground is THIS dry, how much water is left in our aquifer?) The potatoes we planted before leaving for fishing looked as if they hadn't grown an inch since I saw them last and several plants were missing - wilted away to nothing. Hopefully the thunder and lightning means a few days of good rain to bring everything back to life. The goats and chickens were looking desolate in their dry, dead yard.

Speaking of chickens, chicken butchering is starting to seem like a normal activity around here, so much so that I think I didn't even mention it! This was our third round of juvenile rooster elimination, and we've learned a few lessons along the way.

1. Neighbors like you better when you kill all the squawking young roosters and I get to sleep in past 6am! It's great to only have one.
2. Being sneaky in the barn helps: I slipped in just after the chickens went to bed, before it was so dark I'd need a flashlight to see or a gun to fight off the rats, and quietly stood in the hen house waiting for the young roosters to ignore me and go back to sleep. To catch them, I put my hands on their backs and wings and stood still like that for a minute before picking them up. This way they didn't scream and flap about waking everyone else up. They went very quietly.
3. Feed: My process involves separating the death-row chickens from the rest of the flock 24 hours in advance and locking them in the small sandy run with only water to clear out their digestive tracts. It's a good idea but it means that a) I have to really commit to killing them 24 hours before I do it, with no backing out because we are tired; and b) I have to get the whole rest of the flock out of their house and around to the yard in the morning, then reverse the process at night. Last time there was a lot of catching and chasing and herding and frustration and a few bent feathers. This time I made a little trail of feed going out the hen house door and around to the gate (locked Tilly inside the house away from the action), through two sets of gates and into their big yard. After laying the trail with a big pile of food at the end (better lock up the goats somewhere away from that too!) I stood back and in about 10 minutes, the big red rooster led his girls along the trail, no problem. In reverse worked just as well. It helps that I was withholding food from them inside their house to try to encourage the rats to relocate, thus creating very hungry chickens.
4. Prepare: The night of the butchering, I neglected to really make sure we were set up well in advance. It turns out the painting crew over the summer removed some of my butchering supplies and I got a little desperate racing around finding the missing parts in time to hopefully be done by midnight and in bed sleeping soon after. Now our deck is beautifully painted and clean AND set up for butchering with things like a leg loop hanging from the beam for plucking and hooks around for hanging lights and other tools. The all important head-bucket-with-lid was located and we were ready to go before it was all the way dark (see above about rats and holding flashlights in my mouth).
5. Wait until they are all the way dead: Catching the roosters for the final time went like I said above. In the dark I held their backs and wings for a moment before picking them up. Sleepy eyed, they hardly made a cluck. Up at our butchering station I tightly swaddled the rooster in a black towel (hides bloodstains), and tucked him under my arm or between my knees and slit his throat over the main artery. The first two times I broke their necks and chopped off their heads a bit prematurely, this time I waited for that final shutter of life leaving their bodies, then removed their heads. As a result, the process was that much calmer, no fighting, no perceivable pain or discomfort, just very sleepy roosters transforming into dinner.
6. Control the feathers: This time around, we were much more prepared for the pile of sticky, wet feathers we accrue. Instead of having a deflated garbage bag near-ish and feathers everywhere, we lined our large 55-gallon curb-side-sized garbage can with an equally large bag and were much more successful at catching all those feathers. 
7. Package whole: In an effort to expedite the process as well as use the meat better, we elected to leave all the chickens whole this time around. Once all five were plucked and gutted and rinsed we brought them into the house, gave them one more rinse and scrub, and Put the whole bird into an 11" vacuum seal bag - they fit! With their wings and drumsticks tucked in tight to their bodies, they look just like commercial chickens, ready to be thawed, soaked in a sugar-salt-herb brine, rubbed with butter and baked. Delicious! 

In other chicken news, I discovered the secret of the missing eggs. I have 20 hens and was only getting about 6 eggs a day - suspicious. Before I left I was getting 10 eggs a day and now there are three more girls that should be starting to lay. Up in the hay loft above the goats, I pulled the tarp off the bales just to be sure, and lo, there were all the eggs. About 60 eggs ranging from very rotten to a hen mid laying when I interrupted. My neighbor, Linda offered to take all the eggs and mash them with garlic and onion for her own special deer repellent. 

On the goat front, I have a nice new bit of fencing up for them, but despite the shock they keep slipping through! They'll do alright staying in their yard and grazing the tall grasses until they see a person walk by and then their fear of the electric fence dissipates as they go running for affection. It's nearly time to breed again, and then they can start being useful and contributing members of the farm instead of just taunting tails for Tilly to bite at.

The goats had another admirer this week. Our friend from middle school and high school came down from Alaska on a work trip and took a day off to see us. Emily Thorpe, now Emily Bordelon, is expecting her first baby in another 6 months and we had a great time catching up and showing off the farm after so many years! We really need to work on our tour guide routine before she comes back as we fell a little flat on our presentation of the island, "um... there's a bowling ally in Oak Harbor, that's like 45 minutes from here, um... there... is... a market! on Saturdays! that's fun... but not today... You wanna go see the wild show bunnies at the fair grounds?" We can do better.

Having a visitor was a nice relief from my farm chores for the week: removing all the ivy from 5 trees and installing a new kitchen sink.

Nearly more ivy than tree it would seem. Last year's test tree seemed to be a success with my method of removing all the ivy as high as I could reach and hoping the rest would die and fall off - it did and hopefully these ones will too 

The kitchen sink project was an educational opportunity, proving myself as a strong independent woman and all. What probably would have taken a plumber only a couple hours took me three days with daily phone calls to Dad and sending labeled photographs to explain why I couldn't just unscrew the parts. But if we would have called a plumber, the plumber wouldn't have wiped out all the spiders and dust and mold and painted the inside of the sink cabinet to make it a usable and relatively pleasant space. I am very proud of my beautiful new sink. Hopefully it won't even leak!

While I was doing all that, Tim has been working on his own ATF approved projects; brewing beer and trading out foreign for domestic parts. He even brought me a baby hop plant to add to our garden.

Now it is time for Tilly and I to go to Search and Rescue practice while Tim monitors his brewing and waits for Joe and Roni to come by for the weekend.

An abundance of blessings

A quick update on our work as a hostel/WWOOF hosts:

Dad stayed an extra week, then left on Thursday, the 16th. Chaach and Nathan showed up early for our birthday camping trip and stayed an extra night after the weekend, nicely filling that time. As they headed out Monday, the 20th I got about cleaning the house and getting all the camping gear put away again until Mike and Holly called saying they were passing through on their way moving from Montana to Port Angeles and would come by for the night. As they were finishing up lunch and ready to hit the road, our friend Zac called and I sent Tim out the door at the same time as Mike and Holly to fetch our next house guest. Zac should be staying for a while, most likely until his mom, Nancy, gets back to the island on the 5th of May. Zac is also our new crew member for the f/v Whiskey Creek for this season in Bristol Bay.

Rooster Removal

My hens are starting to have bare spots on their backs and heads from too many juvenile roosters trying to work out the nitty-gritty of mating. Monday evening, I segregated all the hens and my one good Big Red Rooster into the hen-house for the night and the 4 undesirable excess roosters locked in the small sandy yard with only water. (I used my excellent Jedi powers to separate them while they were in the big yard by pointing my arm between the birds I wanted to separate and slowly moving forward, splitting the flock until only the roosters remained.) Tuesday morning, it was a bit of an adventure getting all the hens out of the hen house and into the big yard without going through their sandy run, especially as they had never gone out the hen house door before, and once out they were loose on the wrong side of the big fence. The last few hens and baby chicks, I caught and carried one or two or three at a time to the yard.

Hen on left without rooster abuse, hen on right with back feathers missing from those young rascals

Side view of two hens with missing feathers hiding next to their favorite rooster (my favorite, and now only, too)

Next steps:
- Set up stations for bleeding, plucking, cleaning, packaging
     - Chair and knife and apron and head bucket for bleeding
     - Leg loops and scalding pot and fuel and feather bucket and tweezers or pliers for plucking
     - Knives and cutting boards and water and gut bucket for cleaning
     - Vacuum packer and scissors and marker and bowl for packaging meat
     - Dehydrator for Tilly treats
- Lots of lights and the processing table

Killing: Lidded bucket for heads, knife for bleeding cutting off heads, chair to sit on, apron. Not pictured: towel, which proved to be much better for swaddling the rooster in to hold them while butchering. Also blood bucket, separate from head bucket 'cause no one wants those looking up at you while you bleed out.

Scalding: Pot of water, compost thermometer for monitoring that it really is between 160f and 170f, burner. Not pictured: propane tank and long handled lighter. Scalding loosens the feathers for plucking.

Plucking: Foot ties for holding up chicken, garbage bag for catching feathers. Next time we will do this on a Friday so the garbage cans are empty and we can put it directly under instead of having to get those feathers into a deflated bag! Also a pair of pliers for stubborn feathers and a propane torch for searing off weird left over hair-like feathers.

Gutting: Bowl for Tilly treats, tray for carcasses, cutting board, knives. Not pictured: rag or water for wiping up yucky spills. Intestines, gallbladders, tiny unusable wing tips, and feet go in the bury bucket which will be combined with the heads in a deep hole on the beach. We haven't opened the package of feet from last time so we probably don't need eight more. Note the excellent light and table.

Packaging: Bowls and tray for parts, vacuum sealer,  cutting boards and knives, dehydrator for Tilly treats. We start after dark when the chickens are sleeping. The bugs are out and atracted to our light. Last time we were working until 4:30am, this time 1am. I decided doing the finer detailed work in the comfort of our own home was a better idea. Also working on the counter with less bending over proved to be much better. 

Two tiny 4-month old birds, a large sized 6-month old bird, and our dearly loved big white rooster who would have turned 1-years old next week.

Tray of delicious goodies for Tilly's Search and Rescue rewards, ready to be dehydrated. Of note: trachea, hearts, gizzards, lungs, livers, and I believe male reproductive organs.

Look at the size of that! This is ONE drum-stick, packaged for freezing with my tiny fingers poking out from behind and a pair of wings wrapping around my arm!

This is one half-breast piece, much bigger than my hand!

Petunia thinks chickens are boring, so we will end on a non-chicken note with some flashy exciting pictures.

 OCTOGENARIANS ON MOTORCYCLES!!! 

Dad took Grandpa (above) and Great-Aunt Rhoda (below) each out for a spin on his bike. 

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. 

Changing over

EMT class is finished and I've graduated, though still needing to take the National exam.
Joe traded his boat to a great family for a new car and their slightly smaller and easier to sell boat.
Mom and Dad come tomorrow.

But after months of studying and filling my evenings and weekends, graduating from EMT training is leaving me in a bit of a lull, what to do with all my spare moments? I'll have to start cleaning the house and applying for teaching positions and working on my art and something else to fill my time now that I can't blame all cut corners on lack of time. I'm ready for a nap! It will be nice to start falling back into my routine - what was my routine before EMT class? Help Tim get ready for work, tidy the house, work outside in the yard/garden/barn, build something, work on art, run errands, do bills and applications and all those paper things. I made a schedule once to help keep me focused on being productive during the day.

Tim, on the other hand, hasn't gotten a chance for a nap. He was planning on being plenty busy with work, then Daniel and Amanda's car needed repairs. The simple job seemed to grow and try at Tim's determination, but he persisted as best he could. Just as we thought there might be a break, the family on the Olympic Peninsula made an offer on Joe's boat and there was much work to be done making sure everything was up and running, ready to go and Tim has been working over-time at his job and home to stay on top of everything.

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.

Spring Chicks and March

On Monday a week ago, the chicks began hatching under their mom. I had moved her nest box to the floor a few days earlier and rigged up a careful system of adding a small lip to the edge of the nest to keep chicks in as they hatched and some 2x4s to make a ramp in case they fell out of the nest anyways and needed back in. As the chicks hatched, Mama Ukraine stayed on the nest and continued warming the unhatched eggs with fragile little chicks under her. For the first three days, the chicks don't need food or water as they are continuing to live off the yolk like they did while growing in their eggs. I provided small dishes of food and water in the nest box for both Mama Ukraine and the curious chicks.

By Thursday, the first-hatched chicks were ready to start exploring the greater world and Mama Ukraine had to follow. Seven chicks followed their mama out of the nest and around the hen house while 10 eggs remained in the box. I took the eggs to the darkest room in my house, changed the batteries in my brightest flashlight and looked through the shells to see where the unhatched chicks were at. 6 of the eggs were nowhere near hatching - either they hadn't developed, they had stopped developing, or they were just really far behind. 4 of the eggs didn't let any light through and I took that as a sign they were full of chick, ready to hatch. I warmed the eggs against my body (human temperature just so happens to be the right temperature for eggs) and within the hour, the first chick started pecking through the shell and peeping loudly. The little pip (pip being the word for first breaking through the shell) came with me to my EMT class so I could continue warming it and elicited strange looks during the quiet moments when a peep could clearly be heard - any time I bent over the pip yelled at me from inside the shell.

When I came home from class, Mama Ukraine and the rest of the chicks were back in their nest box sleeping for the night so the pipped egg went back under. In the morning, the egg was gone and an 8th fluffy chick was nestled under the mom. Still getting used to standing on two legs the littlest chick wasn't quite up to speed with its curious and adventurous siblings, so Tim babysat the chick with the heat of his computer fan and a little chick-sized blanket for the morning, then we returned the chick to its family where it is keeping up and thriving with the rest.

The orange-tinted chick on the right above and left below was the last chick to hatch, our indoor pip.

The clutch of chicks came out with a good range of color from silver and yellow and creamy white to black and grey and red. I look forward to seeing their adult colors.

We've been continuing to get about half a dozen eggs a day, which is far more than we're eating. The neighbors have been enjoying their eggs and we will be increasing our customer base for selling eggs, though we want to be sure to have plenty for all the company coming this month. Alisha will be leaving for a job in New York on Friday, the same day Tim's dad, Joe, and Roni come for the weekend. They leave on Monday and Tim's mom, Alice, arrives Tuesday, then his birth mom, Dawn witll come Friday for the weekend, then they will leave three days before my parents and great aunt and great uncle and swell uncle and cousin all come for Easter. Our house is ever full!

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.