Missing Willow Farm

She’s a nubian dairy goat who came to our farm when one of our original nubians didn’t work out.  She replaced Dulcinea, who wasn’t properly disbudded (or dehorned).  We have a strict no horns allowed policy.  We figured since we’re new to animal handling, we didn’t want to have to worry about getting gored.  Disbudding isn’t pleasant, it’s done with a hot disbudding iron.  We do it ourselves with the kids born on our farm,  it’s my absolute least favorite part of farming.  Sophie had two kids last Spring.  She was a little skitterish before then, but got used to being handled during milking.  She’s a beauty who doesn’t live up to her dangerous name at all.

As it turns out, you can grow cool season crops in a completely unheated greenhouse if you give your plants an extra layer of protection.  In this case, it’s clear umbrellas covering buttercrunch lettuce, one of our favorites.  The more you cut, the more you get and it’s delicious!  We’re going to take this experiment to a higher level next year, with more indoor raised beds and a fancier second covering that is yet to be designed.  Retired engineers need something to do in their spare time…

It’s been in the teens overnight and we’re still eating our own food.  Honey, bless her heart, is still laying.  The other chickens think she’s a show off.  We need to get more of her breed in 2011, red sexlink.  Our greenhouse (which we are currently not heating) is still producing greens in the dead of winter.  Spinach omelet, anyone?  What’s better than that?

FiFi met me at the gate this morning, hoping I had a biscuit for her (I did).  I’ve never seen her standing like that and realized she’s almost as tall as I am.  She needs a pedicure, right??  Right now, she won’t even let me touch her collar.  I’m hoping that continued treats and love will get both karakachans to the point that we can clip their nails.  And change their tick collars.  And, God forbid, get them into a vehicle for a trip to the vet.  Right now, it’s house calls only.

We’ve always known that the miscellaneous varmits who show up in our pond reside somewhere in the bank across our pond.  Now, thanks to a frozen surface and snowy footprints, we know exactly where they have set up housekeeping.  Good to know….

We swap our chicken’s waterer every morning.  The frozen one gets replaced by a liquid one, and the frozen one comes into our mud room in the house to give it a chance to melt.  The watery one’s arrival is much anticipated and heralded by a flurry of clucking and scratching.  Nugget needs a little step to reach the water.  She’s tiny.

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We had snow yesterday and need to scrape our driveway.  Last winter we didn’t have a means to do this and had to rely on our neighbors.  We purchased a used Kubota and a scraper blade last year and are self-sufficient now.  In order to get the tractor out of the barn then out of the pasture without running over a curious goat or allowing a guardian dog to run out, it’s just 3 easy steps:

1. Put a fresh bale of hay in the feeder.  It keeps the ruminants busy fighting over ‘fresh’ food.  Never mind there was perfectly good hay already in the feeder…

2. Call the guardians away from the pasture gate and feed them dog biscuits. They are absolute suckers for treats.

3. Open the gate and drive the tractor out as fast as you can.

Obviously, this is a two person job.  It’s one we’ve gotten very good at.

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Bindi has realized Jenna is her neighbor.  She visits often.  We try to remember to keep Jenna’s kennel door closed but when we forget Bindi runs in, sniffs her nose and runs out.   Jenna’s pretty ‘whatever’ about it all.  Bindi’s secretly making plans to break her out late some night so they can run amok and make long distance calls together.   We’re keeping an eye on our phone bill….

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Not!  We hosted a dinner last night featuring local lamb provided by a good friend.  There were ten diners, including our shepherd friend and his wife, a good friend and Food Network Challenge winner and her husband, some new friends who are originally from England and a lovely food writer and her daughter.  The shepherd provided everyone with the lamb cut of their choice on Wednesday, and we served tastings of each dish over a leisurely few hours last night, with wine pairings.  We had lamb sausage balls, chop lollipops, stuffed breast of lamb with scalloped potatoes and parsnips, spiedie kabobs with grilled vegetables, Mediterranean ragu over pasta with Missing Willow Farm goat cheese, homemade lamb sausage and rice salad, tangerine sorbet, curried leg of lamb, tenderloin of lamb with asparagus salad, coconut cake and a cheese course.  All I can say is WOW!  Each dish was a masterpiece showcasing an incredible product.   When we moved to the middle of nowhere, an hour from a movie theater or Home Depot, we never guessed we’d end up in such a culinary oasis.  For that, I’m thankful.  There are lots of leftovers (except for those lollipops), including the cake which is mine, all mine!

Thackary Binx is the first sphynx we ever got.  We got Binx from a cattery in Montana, we lived in Poughkeepsie, NY at the time.  The breeder asked me where I wanted him shipped.  Since the Newburgh airport was just about a 30 minute drive away, that’s the one I selected.  His flight was scheduled to arrive at 8PM, we were so excited to meet him!  We got to the airport early and waited patiently as the baggage was unloaded… no cat.  The breeder provided us flight info to Newburgh but shipped him to Newark.   That’s in another state!  What choice did we have but to drive there and pick him up?  We got home VERY late that night.  The first night he crawled into bed with us, settled in on my pillow and that’s the spot he claimed as his.  I tried showing him at cat shows but he hated it.  He just growled in his cage the entire show.  Binx went to Florida with our daughter Tracy when she graduated from college and got her own place.  He turned  17 years old yesterday.  This is a photo of him from this past Christmas.  He’s still spry and gives Tracy and her husband lots of joy and love.  Happy birthday, Binx!  May you have many, many more.