Today I am a stay at home Dad so Anna can chaperone a field trip with Vicki.
You know you have farm kids when the 2 year old is quite happy helping with chores in a princess dress and then finds a nice mud hole to dig in. Now she is learning how to drive her tractor. We saved it from the older kids and just got a new battery installed. I think it is going to be hard keeping Alex and Vicki off…
That’s right, we have Goat Addition Syndrome. You can read more about the affliction on Backyard Herds. In September 2011, we bought our first 2 goats. Right now we have 2 bucks, 6 does (3 in milk – 2 getting milked and 1 with babies), and 4 doelings born this year. Some people would think that 12 goats are enough, but we are only getting about 5-6 quarts of milk a day from the 2 does we are milking. Farrah is either going to kid this week (she is already overdue), or she is very fat and going on a diet. Theoretically, we will sell some goats, but we just haven’t decided which ones yet. We are somewhat attached to our Lamanchas and want to expand on that herd, so that’s why we are going to buy another goat from New Hampshire this weekend. Hopefully by Monday we will be milking 3 does for about 2 gallons of milk a day. That should support the demand for a little while. The kids are capable of eating 2 quarts of ice cream a day, so we make a batch every other day. We actually drink about 3 quarts a day, and the rest will be used for making cheese. If we still have extra, we might raise a veal calf. 13 goats should be enough for a little while. Of course if Farrah really does kid, then it’s more like 15…
Sawyer Farm’s Goldilocks (born 5/18/2012)
Sawyer Farm’s Belle (born 5/18/2012)
A little bit of enlightening truth from my first class (Critical Thinking) towards my Equine Sciences degree:
In 1906, William Graham Sumner published a land-breaking study of the foundations of sociology and anthropology, Folkways, in which he documented the tendency of the human mind to think sociocentrically and the parallel tendency for schools to serve the (uncritical) function of social indoctrination :
“Schools make persons all on one pattern, orthodoxy. School education, unless it is
regulated by the best knowledge and good sense, will produce men and women who
are all of one pattern, as if turned in a lathe…An orthodoxy is produced in regard to all
the great doctrines of life. It consists of the most worn and commonplace opinions which
are common in the masses. The popular opinions always contain broad fallacies, halftruths,
and glib generalizations (p. 630).”
Last weekend, I wrote about the North Stonington 5k, but I left out the details of something that happened. During Vicki’s 1/4 mile race (which was 2 laps around a field), she ran by Madison. Madison is 5 and goes to church with us. Vicki noticed Madison was crying and not at all happy about racing around the field. Vicki stopped and put her arm around Madison’s shoulder, walking the second half of the first lap until Madison got back to her parents. Then, with a smile on her face, she ran her second lap, well behind the main group.
On Monday, we cooked 2 freshly harvested roosters on the rotisserie. Alex and Vicki pulled the wishbones, and Alex won twice. Since Vicki didn’t win, he gave her one of the two wishes.
As I think about both of these events, I consider that my children are much more compassionate than I am, and can only conclude they learn it from their loving mother, and my beautiful wife.
We finally took some pictures of our rabbits! Since we currently have 27 kits (baby rabbits) and 13 adults for breeding stock, I only selected a few to put on the page. Don’t worry, we have 2 more rabbits due with litters in mid June.
Ok, so the bucks actually got here 2 weeks ago, but we finally made some pictures this evening. We got one Oberhasli and one Lamancha (his ears are supposed to look like that). They are young, but will be ready to breed soon. Here they are:
Blue-Ridge Mohawk (registration # pending)
Sire Blue-Ridge Titus (AB1311788) Dam CH Blue-Ridge Sheena (AB1277945)
Blue-Ridge Apache (registration # pending)
Sire Blue-Ridge Zulu (AL1501363) Dam Blue-Ridge Yanni’s Serenade (AL1466941)
I’ve got a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.S. in Engineering Management. Now it is time to get a degree I want to use. It is interesting how our decisions in life change. In about 7 years I will be eligible to retire from the Navy. My current “second career” plan is to be a professional, full-time barefoot horse trimmer. In preparation for that career and to aid me in my current trimming business, I am working on a certification in Natural Hoof Care from The Equine Sciences Academy.
The first phase of the certification is to earn a degree in Equine Sciences. Through the program, I will be studying the whole horse, with emphasis on Natural Horse management principles. The curriculum is very comprehensive, so I expect it will be very beneficial beyond just the trimming business, but improve me as a rider and owner as well. I will also be traveling on occasions to conduct trimming practicums with instructors. The second phase of the Certification is focused completely on the trimming.
Time to study.
Today was the annual North Stonington Education Fund 5k race with kids races. Since the race starts only 3/4 mile from our house and supports the local schools, we decided to attend again this year. I ran to the start, Alex and Vicki rode bikes and Amanda rode in the trailer behind Anna’s bike. Of course it was hot and humid (73F and 80% humidity).
Vicki and Alex had fun running their 1/4 mile and 1/2 races respectively. Alex ran just over 6 min for the 1/2 mile, but was a bit slow because he was running for about 30 minutes while waiting on the race.
I actually set a new PR (Personal Record) for the 5k (3.1 miles). I ran a 20:39, which is more than 3 minutes off my time from the same race last year (which was a PR last year). It was also good enough for 1st place in my age group. I still have some work to get below the 20 min mark, but I am pretty pleased with the race.
For Mother’s Day, Anna had 1 request: “build a cold frame for my plants before you leave town.” Well since I was leaving town on Monday, that didn’t leave much time to get the project designed, built, and installed.
A cold frame is like a small greenhouse. It is designed to be a transition area for plants. Since Anna had been growing seedlings in the basement, she needed somewhere to move them outside to get sunlight during the day, but be protected from the cold at night.
Previously, in anticipation of this project, Anna had picked up 2 skylights off freecycle. She removed all the aluminum flashing and some of the operating hardware. This reduced the weight (a little) and made it possible to operate them by hand. I already had some pallets with OSB mounted on the sides from a hay feeder design last winter. We didn’t plan to reuse that feeder again, but I had saved the panels for a future project like this. I basically built a large box to support the skylights at a slight angle. We dug out the area for the cold frame to be installed and connected all the walls together. Once the top windows were on, we loaded the bottom of the cold frame with compost that was about 6 months old. This compost still has some decomposing going on, so that provides the heat inside the box at night to prevent frost damage to the young plants. Anna put weed cloth over the compost base and then added the plants. During the day the windows are propped open, and at night they are closed.
After a little over a week in the cold frame, Anna has started to move the plants into the garden. (That is a rhubarb plant that she is standing next to, not a sapling.) Anna got her Mother’s Day wish and it only took about 3 hours to build.
Ever since we moved in, we have been working to improve our horse riding arena. We have spent some unknown number of hours using pitchforks and just our hands picking up the rocks out of the arena. Last year, we added 50 tons of sand, but that didn’t really take care of getting rid of all the rocks baseball size and below. Frequently, I use the york rake to condition the arena, and create nice rows of rocks to pick up. Of course, I always end up with some larger piles of rocky sand/soil mix that we have to sort through by hand. There are a lot of things you can buy to expedite this process, but they are REALLY expensive.
Finally, we decided it was time to build our own Grizzly Rock Screen.
I was able to get the expanded metal mesh panels for the screen from Mid Town Steel. CAUTION: the panels are EXTREMELY sharp. I sliced open a finger just touching the surface. Research indicated a 45 degree angle was the ideal angle. The initial design I had planned was going to have the front edge about 2 feet high and put a piece of the screen as a front wall. I decided to build the frame out of treated lumber since a metal frame was going to cost me about $350 in steel plus the cost of a welder. While I am looking for a good project to justify the welder purchase, I decided not keep this simple.
Assembly revealed 2 faults with the design. If the front is 2′ high, and the screen is 8′ at a 45 degree angle, the back is about 8′ high. No problem since my tractor bucket can just clear 8′. Now my math skills were able to figure all that out on the engineering plans. However, actually testing the design after assembly revealed that when the bucket of your tractor goes over something at max height, dumping the contents becomes a problem because there isn’t enough clearance below the bucket.
So after so disassembling, we started design #2. The second design had the front edge directly on the ground and the back legs about 6′ high. Much easier and MUCH more stable. The elevated design was very unstable and probably would have collapsed under the first load of dirt.
As indicated in the pictures, I moved the Grizzly to the arena and gave it a test with a pile I had been collecting in the middle of the arena. If I ever build another, I won’t bother having the expanded metal panels cut; just build the angled bed 8′ square. This will give more room for the 5’6″ bucket under the bed for scooping out the cleaned soil/sand.
While the rock side does build up on the bed and limit the amount that can be processed before clearing the output, it is a significant time saver. The screened sand/soil is clear of everything 1/2″ and larger. Looks like I need to fill up the tractor and spend a few hours in the arena!