Nature Photo - sunset

This was a beautiful sunset we saw while going to get another load of manure for the garden.

You may have noticed that I've changed the blog title.  This is because I have been wanting to write more about other aspects of my life other than farming, but it felt strange having it be called Fox Grape Farm.

{this moment}

Joining in with Soulemama today!

{this moment}

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Garden Update

The winter garden is still giving us small bits of edibles here and there.  Radishes - that really needed to be picked earlier, but oh well - and carrots!  They are ugly, stunted carrots, but here in Florida we will take what we can get.  And the kale!  Out of my garden?  I've longed for garden-fresh kale for years now.  It kept freezing, even the Siberian kale.  The kale and carrots went into a stew, and the radishes were on the side with butter.
We also managed to show extreme self-restraint and managed to bring some sugar snap peas home with us instead of devouring them off the vine.

I've started bringing my summer starts out to get used to their permanent home.  They are all doing very well.  I watered them with some Desert Dynamin clay mixed into the water after bringing them out, and I think they liked that a lot.  Notice all the flowers starts!  I hope it is a beautiful garden this year.

There are many more tomato starts to bring out still.  I even custom started some tomatoes and peppers for my neighbors down the street.
Planting time is coming up this weekend!

A little sewing - The Washi Dress

I love to sew and have been sewing for years now, but I still have very little experience with sewing from patterns.

I usually make my own patterns, but I haven't had the ability or time to think over enough details to really make something wearable since Clothilde was born.  It's hard enough to have time to even get out my sewing machine.  I tried making something from a pattern years ago and it was a failure.  I couldn't tell anywhere on the pattern if they had already added the seam allowance in (I now realize they did) and I cut it out wrong on a piece of corduroy so that one leg had the corduroy strip facing the wrong way!

The Washi Dress looked so cute and simple, I thought I might like to try another pattern.  That's how I learned knitting - I tried more complex patterns to challenge myself to learn different techniques and clothing construction.

Well, I did finish the first one, and I'm discovering I am not actually a "large," but rather am a "medium."  I guess that's a good thing, but it looks a little tent-like on me, so I am sewing on a tie to draw back the extra fabric.  I took my chest measurements three times, and every time ended up with a different number, so I thought it would be best to error on too large.  I also found out that I can't understitch very well at all, and I ended up hand stitching the facings.

I'm going to try another attempt, perhaps next week when I've finished sewing the tie to this one.  I know the second dress will be easier.

Sheltering

It was stormy yesterday evening when we were doing the chores, so Mirin and Rose decided to build a new kind of shelter.  It was built on The Pit, which has become a famous feature of the farm (this is actually the second and more respectable pit).  When kids come to visit, the pit gets a little larger and children end up having to be dragged away screaming and begging for more time.  We invited Mirin's cub scout troop out last summer and apparently this was the biggest highlight.  When one little scout came out to celebrate Mirin and Rose's birthdays, he leaped from his car saying, "Where's this pit I've been hearing about?"

Every kid should have a pit, no?

Ethan helped a little with the first knots, but Mirin cut all the stakes and Rose helped put the roof up.

 (Please forgive the quality of the photos.  It was nearly dark by then)

They did some more digging to shape the sides and created a great entrance slide.  It's about four feet deep now.  When we were out earlier so I could milk Nougat, all three of them played in the pit, making a nice break for my back to not have to crouch down under a kicking goat with the baby in the Ergo.  It reminded me of the Incan women in Peru who would dig a pit to keep toddlers safe while they worked on the very steep terraced mountain fields.  There's so much entertainment for a toddler in a pit!

Yes, every kid should certainly have at least one.

Monday Nature Photos

Ethan found a tiny gopher tortoise.  He must have been newly hatched.  He was in danger of being squished, so of course he was relocated to a safe spot some yards away.

No more now - we have a busy day ahead of us, as Nougat had a touch of mastitis, and we've got to go out and milk her extra today to make sure it doesn't get worse!

{This Moment}

Joining in with SouleMama today!

{This Moment}

A Friday ritual.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Twilight Sparkle

I didn't have a chance yet to mention that Nougat had her baby on Tuesday, and it was a girl!
Mirin and Rose are thrilled to have a Twilight Sparkle at last, but Ethan is shockingly opposed to it.  He's put up the biggest stink about the name.  He wants to call her Becky Thatcher--B.T. for short, like the bacterial toxin they genetically engineer into plants to kill things that eat them.  Mirin and Rose had a poll going around the family with signatures in favor of Twilight Sparkle, but Ethan has been unmoved.  I am surprised he cares so much about what names the goats have!  He and the goats have a subtle war of wills going on at all times.  He tries to have as little to do with the goats as possible, and the goats misbehave for him whenever they get the chance.  When I pointed out they could have wanted to name her Pinky Pie, it didn't cheer him up any.  Actually, he almost gagged a little.

So among ourselves she is Twilight Sparkle, but around Ethan she is Nougat's baby, and if you ask him she is Anything-Other-Than-Twilight-Sparkle.

I think she kind of looks like a Twilight Sparkle.

Wait, there's another one!

June Bug was due yesterday.  Her mama is May, who was Ellie's baby, born on May 1st.  June Bug was born on June 1st.  And it so happened that she was due on April 1st.  Ethan had his hopes up for an April, to add to the collection--if her baby was a girl.

Well, when we got out yesterday June Bug was still huge and pregnant, and didn't appear to be in labor.  We laughed, and said, "Of course it wouldn't be today.  There's no way she would also kid on the first of a month."

I milked everyone, which included wrestling with Nougat on the milking stand.  She was not used to being milked anymore, and was extremely badly behaved.  I have the hoof-marks to prove it.  Then I let them all out into the lush rye grass.  They were so delighted.  It was like the people walking into Willie Wonka's beautiful candy wonderland.

After I was finished milking Matilda, I noticed June Bug stop eating and find a good spot to lie down.  I thought, well maybe she's having her baby today after all.  I kept my eye on her, and she seemed to be watching me, and I thought perhaps she might want me to come over.  When I went to check on her, she looked like she was stretching her back legs a bit.  I sat down with her and said encouraging things.  Ethan was close by, so I alerted him with funny hand signals (I didn't want to shout and disturb her).  It wasn't long at all before the baby was born!  He made a little squawk and she immediately stood up and started cleaning him off.  I could tell it was a boy right away.  Ethan was disappointed he wasn't going to get to name one April this year, but I told him we could name the boy April--why not?  Or Neroneus, maybe. (Nero tried to re-name April Neroneus, but it never caught on).

June Bug had him almost all clean when she laid down again suddenly and pushed.  I thought it was the afterbirth, perhaps, and she stood up immediately and seemed to be eating it (as is the habit with most animals).  I went to get her some water and cider vinegar and something to eat while Ethan came over to bring her some nice hay.  Then he said suddenly, "Wait, there's another one!  It's twins!"

Sure enough, and the next one was a girl.  So there was an April after all.  June Bug was such a good mother.  She had them all clean and was nursing them in half an hour.

I think we are going to name the boy March.  He did come before April.
It was so amazing to be there for a birth.  It's only the second goat birth I've attended.  I think June Bug wanted company and she seemed glad I was there.  I think the rye grass inspired her.  I would have wanted to give birth in the rye, too.

Missing

Over the weekend we went out to do the milking, and saw two of the baby goats (Huck and Sid) playing rambunctiously together.
"Where's Tom?" I asked Ethan, who was in the paddock with me.
We walked all around the paddock, which is fairly small, but there was no sign of him.  May suddenly realized she couldn't find her baby and began to bleat (before that she was lounging around chewing her cud and didn't care).
"Could he have gotten out and been eaten?" I wondered.  Ethan didn't think so, but he was not in the paddock that we could see.  The goats began following us around.  May started to kind of freak out a little and was calling loudly now.
Then we heard a tiny little goat bleat from somewhere.  We followed it, but couldn't tell just where it was coming from.  It seemed to be in the direction of a rusty old green barrel we need to throw away (Ethan: "It's not trash, it's a 'cow toy'").
Then Tom pokes his little head  out.

Much to our relief and May's.  Now it's not trash, it's a "baby goat shelter."

Two New Kids

May's baby was born last week.  He looks just like May!  And he got the long Nubian ears that are so adorable.  May has tons of milk this time.  Mirin and Rose are bitterly disappointed that all the babies so far are boys.  They were both hoping to name them after My Little Ponies.  (I am sort of embarrassed to say.  We don't even own a TV, but they've watched the cartoon on Netflix at their grandparents' house.)

We've been reading Tom Sawyer aloud on our drives to the farm and back, so we are calling them after the characters in the story.  This one's Tom.  He seems unusually photogenic for a baby goat.  Or maybe he was too freshly born to jump around crazily.

Firefly also kidded last week.  It was another boy!!  So much for the dreams of calling him Twilight Sparkle!  Nope, he's Sid.  He wasn't even born with the weird African Pygmy goat waddles like the other two.  It's so entertaining to watch them playing.  Two more mamas are due this week!

{this moment}

{A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.}

Gut Flora Revolution

We have begun the GAPS diet this week. Since Mirin was very young he has had mood behavior issues that are directly related to things he eats.  Last fall he had some cake at a friend's wedding, and was miserable for weeks afterwards.  We tried to do this for him when he was very young, but it was impossible not having all of our extended family on board.  Also, back then I was going on just the GAPS book, and there's so much more to it now!

We finally decided it was something we had to try again, and we have everyone on board this time.  That means he can't run next door after refusing a nourishing meal and eat six pieces of toast with jelly like last time.  Really this is something we ALL need.  Ethan and I are of the generation where you got antibiotics for any sort of sniffles--and we were both in daycare and sick constantly with multiple ear infections.  We've both had countless rounds of antibiotics during our life.

(GAPS is a diet that helps to kill off unhealthy bacteria, yeasts and parasites by depriving them of the foods they thrive on, while taking in very nutrient dense foods, digestive enzymes and strong soil-based probiotics.  If you have digestive problems, allergies, immune problems, absorption problems or mental health problems, you should totally look into it!!)

The first day, I had made a delicious and rich pork stew with onion, tomatoes and carrots.  Right after breakfast, everyone's reaction was pretty much the same:

No one was happy, except Ethan, who was at work and didn't hear all the screaming.  Mirin took refuge in Calvin and Hobbes, although there was a little whining about not having chocolate frosted sugar bombs or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I myself felt the same way--horrible.  It was only one meal, but I felt like I would die if I didn't have my customary glass of milk.  The rest of that morning felt otherworldly.  I was not myself.  I didn't realize I couldn't make it through ONE meal without these foods!

After lunch my stomach began to really hurt, and I laid down with Clothilde during her nap, with the same feeling that I might die if I didn't go eat a spoonful of honey or a cracker or something sweet or starchy.  It felt like a collapse of civilization, really uncomfortable and unhappy.  I was amazed at how much it affected my emotions.

After I got up, I felt so much better, but not quite myself.  That night, too, I felt so relaxed going to bed that I thought there must be something wrong with me.  But yesterday I woke up and felt incredibly peaceful, grounded and happy.  Of course my kids were at the point where they felt like they would die if they didn't have the foods they are used to, so there was still lots of screaming, but I was shocked at how calm I felt.  I guess I had always gone through my days with horrible near-panic-attack anxiety, and never realized it before.

This morning I feel even better, although really fundamentally different.  I've spent years trying to get to this place of calm and peacefulness through emotional/spiritual work, and all I needed was a change in diet!

The children are better today, even.  So far so good, it has been so worth all the change.

Nesting

Yesterday morning I heard a strange tapping on the front window.  When I opened the curtains, Penny was standing on the windowsill peeking in.  Later, we discovered her sitting in the egg basket that Ethan left on the front porch.  She looked very comfy.

She made herself a little nest and when she got up, there was a fresh brown egg, already in the egg basket!

Two Gardens

Peek-a-boo!
I do hope this becomes more of a habit.
I thought I might write a little about the gardens--my winter garden, and my dreams for the summer garden--

Thanks to our friend Danny, we found a wonderful source of horse manure.  It's a horse-boarding place, there's tons and tons of it, and they are so happy for us to haul it away.  We also found some huge pieces of cardboard, so garden construction is underway.

Here it is-- the whole side of the garden--15 beds and all, not counting the corn and pumpkins.

This past week I was worrying I may have been over ambitious this year.  But we only have five more beds to build--two more loads of manure to haul away.

Last summer's garden was a smallish garden.  It only took up a quarter of the space, and I built three permaculture beds around the corn patch.  Everything did so well, but I ran out of room.  It changed my gardening philosophy in that I only planted a few plants of each thing and nurtured them along.  It was so shockingly productive that way.  Before I had been planting dozens of plants in hopes I'd get a handful of something out of them, but it was too big and there were too many to really care for them all.

This year I am only planting a few plants of each thing, but I really want to give everything the space it needs.  So that's why the garden is so big this year.

We had such a busy late summer/fall last year, that the winter garden was not really well done.  I actually ended up buying starts this year instead of trying my own starts.  I finally did get some nice kale to grow.

We have potatoes starting to peek out, and some of the carrots did sprout at last.

The onion patch is doing well this year.  I did two different kinds of beds with them, and it turns out the most back-breaking one to build did the very best.  Oh well.

I'm even getting a tiny bit of cabbage.  We also have a revolutionary hoop-house for cold protection.  I'll admit, this is the first year the winter garden didn't just freeze and get eaten by rabbits.  It's been kind of shocking, really.

Now that so many things have gone to seed, there's not too much growing there now, except the borage.  She is certainly queen of the garden at the moment, and I enjoy her beauty every day.  I even made an herb cream cheese spread from the leaves.

Younger Buckthorne is doing quite well.  He was jumping about playfully yesterday.  Firefly is due today, and May tomorrow, so there just might be a new baby goat at some point today.

Spring and a new start perhaps

It's been so long now since I have written here.
It has been on my mind so often to write about such-and-such, but I never seem to be able to find the time these days!  But I have carved out a little today, so here are a few random pictures--

Last year we had a good year.  Nothing has changed extremely.  The garden was so lovely and productive last year with all the rain.  We got a buck for the goats, and the babies are being born now!  The first one was born on Thursday.  I thought it would be Firefly, because she was supposed to be first, but it was Cricket's baby.  It was a little boy--the first boy goat born on our farm.

There was a calf born in February.  We've called him Sampson.

The rye we seeded on some of the pastures and in the garden turned out quite nice.  It has made such a difference for everyone to have some good green stuff during the winter.

Clothilde has grown up quite a lot now. 

This spring our table is decorated with spring flowers and an Ostara tree.  We had lots of fun blowing the eggs and painting them on the Equinox.

This was from warmer days--Clothilde helps to feed the animals!  She loves all of them, and isn't afraid.

This was the buck.  We were reading Washington Irving, as per family tradition in the fall, and called him "Young Buckthorne."  He was, after all, a young man of great expectations.

He was a good buck, got all the girls bred, was friendly and gentle, and towards the end of his stay was not even terribly stinky.  The drawback was that he was very funny looking.  His mama was a La Mancha and his father was a Kinder (Nubian and African Pygmy).  My friend Denise lent him to us for free.  His dad had gotten in with the does and so he was sort of an accident, but we weren't picky at all this year.  She said his mama made the most milk of all the goats, but he did have wattles and weird little Shrek ears.

Spring is in full bloom out at the farm.  It is so beautiful out there these days.

I hope that I will be able to write more this year.  But look what happened last time I shut the office door, leaving Ethan with the children, and tried to order the Freedom Ranger chicks for this year without a certain someone chewing on the electrical cords or ravaging the sewing table, or other certain someones asking innumerable questions:

In case you don't recognize this, it is a $1,000 fine for "Cruelty and Neglect" of my children they tell me!  I thought that was pretty steep for 15 minutes alone.