OakMoon Farm & Creamery

I usually keep a lamp with a timer on in the hen house during the fall and winter, providing a little extra light before dawn and after dusk each day.  It keeps some of the hens laying through the cold months, with no detrimental effects on them.  Until the timer went bad, and would turn on, but not go off.  Since we've been in our rest-time, we'd get our outside chores done and dive indoors early most evenings, not noticing that the chicken light was on ALL NIGHT.  This did not work as logic might predict, with waves of eggs flowing out the door of the hen house.  Rather, the hens began to look a bit hung-over, like they'd come in on the red-eye flight.  Thankfully, we noticed this before it had gone on too long, and unplugged the timer.

(Hen and her biddies last summer.)

However, we didn't get another timer until about 4 weeks ago, and have been without good fresh eggs for over 2 months.  Fresh eggs are so much better than store-bought eggs that it is impossible to describe how wonderful they are, and I nearly cried when I had to buy eggs these last weeks.

The hens got back down to work last week, thank goodness!  Dwain and I have enjoyed several breakfasts of fresh, deep yellow-yoked jewels that seemed like a gift from the great chicken goddess (Henny-Penny?).  I'm hearing that many municipalities across the country are enacting statutes to allow for the keeping of hens within city limits where they were previously forbidden.  This is a great step, part of the steady return to local food and self-sufficiency in America.  There's a movement to encourage a "Victory" garden for the White House lawn.  I think there should be also be a presidential chicken flock, including a nice loud rooster.  Maybe if they lent the rooster out to Congress he could wake that gang up a little!

Dwain wrapped the barn this week just ahead of the newest bout of miserably cold weather.  The actual low was about 3 degrees, and estimations put the windchill at -10.  We'd been given a couple of remnant rolls of awning material, and Dwain nailed it up all around the back of the barn, where it is open.  Last year, having the windward front of the barn closed off did the job of keeping the interior protected from drafts and wind-blown rain and snow.  However, the winds have been far more fickle this year, frequently blowing from the east or at least changing directions enough to send precipitation in on the does.  The picture isn't great, but the white fabric has proven to be just enough to make the barn very comfortable for the does without holding in moisture, hopefully.

Demi is our oldest Nigerian Dwarf doe.  She is an irrepressible personality, all attitude.  But really, that's just the Nigerian in her; they are big goats in little goats' bodies.  Well, in Demi's case, her little goat body is getting bigger by the day as her most recent pregnancy reaches the red zone.  Last year, she looked like this and delivered quintuplets (scroll down on Our Vision page to see her picture).  We're beginning to get worried as she's not due to kid until the weekend of our cheesemaking workshop, and that's nearly a month away.

To add perspective, this little goat is only about 22 inches tall at the shoulder!  So this is a baby goat time bomb, ticking away.....

NOTE: the night after I posted this, I dreamed Demi gave birth to seven.  I'd call it a nightmare except I also dreamed the farmer next door was a younger, less beat-up Mickey Rourke. (Sorry Dwain! xoxox)

With only about a month to go before the first kids start coming, it's time to do some annual care on the mothers-to-be.  For the past three afternoons, I've been trimming hooves, giving CD &T shots, Bo-Se injections, Copasure boluses, taking weight measurements, etc.

I do my best to avoid the use of antibiotics, but have learned (the hard way) that the judicious use of  well-timed supplements can make all the difference in the health of the does and the babies on the way.   I've also been checking the does for signs of parasites, and except for an obvious louse problem with the saanens, most of the others look quite good.  I'll give a wormer to most on the day they kid, but for now I'll wait.  The saanens always seem to succumb to lice in winter.  I used to think this was a "white goat" problem, but now that we have white nigerians, white lamanchas, white grades, and an almost white nubian, none of whom act lousy, it is apparent that the saanes are more susceptible for some reason.  So I'll treat for that, too.

I've got a few old does that have been struggling with parasites and mineral deficiencies, problems that are linked.  They have been treated repeatedly for internal parasites, and just can't shake them.  These does have been slated to go "over the rainbow bridge", but haven't gotten there yet, so they got their copper boluses and selenium shots too.  Hopefully they will be feeling better soon. 

Knowing when it is time for an older animal to go to heaven is a really tough one.  Always, our hearts tell us we can't do without our old sweetie, but we learned a long time ago that there are many worse things than a gentle death.  We're already apt to let an animal hang around longer than most folks would, so when it's time at OakMoon farm, it's time.

Cold weather, yeah, I'd say it's cold enough for us here in the mountains.  This morning it was 4degrees, but could have been so much worse as the wind had died just after sunset and had been mostly still all night.  Our daytime temp came up to a balmy 17, but again, the wind was gentle, much more so than we generally get up here this time of year.  The most reliable weatherman assures us that by Saturday the weather will warm enough to snow, but until then it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow morning.  Sigh......

This is Macha, my right hand.  She's become something of a housedog in this weather, is snoozing behind my chair as I type.  She helps remind the goats where the gates are, and hurry them along a little when they are lazy about getting from place to place.

The goats do better in the cold than most people would imagine.  One doe is bred for a January delivery and about ready to pop, so I'm keeping an eye on her, but the rest are occupying themselves with chewing and cudding and sleeping in piles like puppies up in the barn.  As long as they have plenty of water and good hay, their stomachs act as little furnaces to keep them warm.

There's more to tending the farm than kissing goats and making clabber, but of course you knew that.  Keeping the farm going is a challenge and making it pay sometimes seems a vague dream.  Winter is great for resting, thinking, planning, in other words, the "gestating" time of the year that is necessary before the "birthing" time of spring.   But that doesn't mean it's an idle period, though of course we have more free time to enjoy.  We still have to keep the does and bucks and upcoming 

doelings fed, and that means lots of hauling and toting and pulling.  Dwain gets the lion's share of that type of work, which is why it was such a problem when he "did a sciatica" a few years ago and spent several weeks laid up.  The photo shows Dwain unloading some square bales of grass hay we got the other day.  For the milker gang we use the big round bales, 400-800lbs each, but for the out-lying pens of bucks and one trio of late doelings we use square bales. 

For those of you investigating goat farming, proper provision of adequate forage should be your primary concern.  Quality forage in sufficient quantity is the cornerstone of goat health, and it can take the form of good pasture, hay, or a forage garden grown and cut for the goats (sounds nice, but A LOT of work).  Good pasture means a plant population of hopefully mixed perennial weeds, saplings, legumes, brambles and grass.  The more diverse the types of plants in the pasture, the better for the goats.  Good pasture also means that the grass/plants are not overgrazed to the point that they are shorter than 3-4 inches tall even in drought.

Most of us who keep goats feed a lot of hay, summer and winter, because we don't have the acreage to provide the pasture described above.  The lucky ones have the ability to cut their own hay, and the buildings to store it out of the weather.  The rest of us make do.  Some really blessed folks live where they can literally free-range the goats, letting them roam during the day to forage as they will. I envy them.

Hay prices vary greatly in our area depending on location and how the weather has effected the harvest.  For years we could get 500-600lb rolls of very good grass/clover hay for $25 each.  This year, we are able to get a similar-sized roll of mixed grass hay for $50; during the worst of the drought last year we were lucky to find any rolls for double that price.  Our milker gang averages 60 does and goes through two big rolls (fed free-choice) per week.  When we start milking, we'll have to put out three rolls per week, plus the same group will go from consuming 75lbs of concentrate pellets daily to about 100lbs per milking.

  "I'd like some more, please."

Do keep in mind that while I speak English more or less fluently, my "mastery" of any other language besides piglatin is laughable.  So if the heading of this entry is in any way incorrect, save yourself the trouble of correcting me as it will be lost on an infidel like me.  While the heading may not be grammatically correct, the spirit with which it was intended is as strong as the cheese. 

I've been at the creamery today, tidying up and packaging some aged cheese to put in the cooler for sale.  I tend to go into "fromage dreams" when at this task, as I go through aging cheeses, sometimes finding forgotten bits tucked behind other things in the aging fridge.  It's rather like a cross between a treasure hunt and the TV show "Fear Factor" as I taste everything I find unless it crawls toward me, holds out it's tiny arms, and says "Mommy?".  I've learned a lot about cheesemaking (MY cheesemaking in particular) on these little forays, and so far have lived to tell about it.  Don't worry, intrepid cheese-heads; I keep the craziest odds and ends for myself, so you won't find them in the sale cooler!

Much of December was lovely and warm here, though rainy and subsequently muddy as well.  We try not to complain about the rain because we've been living at the edge of the newly forming "Great Southeastern Desert" for the last few years. 

So now that January is here, Winter is blowing in like she wants us to remember what she's capable of.  Hard winds today---including 40-60mph gusts and temps in the lower 30's---are enough of a reminder to make even the most intrepid of us stay in by the fire.  Chores are completed on the run, making sure the goats, chickens, and dogs are OK for the evening.

Jalapeno, one of the young nubian does, has her head through one of the small spaces near the bottom of a fence panel in the side of her pen.  I just tried to get her head back through the bars, but no luck.  Without being able to read her mind I can only surmise that she was trying to reach a leaf blowing by.  Since she fought my efforts and her sister Chipotle kept nibbling me (painfully!)  while I tried to free her, I decided to give Jalapeno a little time to consider her predicament.  I'm headed back out to give it another go.

I don't usually do New Years resolutions.  At least I always claim I don't do them.  But somehow I make a few in spite of myself as I do an annual reassessment of the previous year and head into the next one. So far, I'm planning to lose weight (aren't we all?), committing to being a better business thinker, and swearing I'll get to bed earlier so I can get an earlier start each day.  I'm hoping to be fairly faithful in making blog entries. Oh, yeah, and I'm going to stay off the computer.....

2009 will be our third year of operating the creamery, and despite the realities of our uncertain national economy, I feel upbeat about the possibilities.  Last fall, as Wall Street did backflips in its "dance of death" our farmers market customers became so worried that sales almost flat-lined for several weeks.  Scary business, that.  Because while everyone was watching their pocketbooks (and with good reason!) the goats kept eating and the rent still came due.  We re-evaluated everything, did some selling off of extra goats, and just kept going forward.  People everywhere were worried about the hit their stock porfolios were suffering.  We were worried about our "stock", too, but they just stood there chewing, wondering what we were looking at!

I'm planning to do several new cheeses this year, as well as the customer favorites. We're already making a new specialty called Goats Gruff Fromage Fort.  "Fromage fort" is French for "strong cheese" and our version fits that description!  Made from grated aged goat cheese, fresh chevre, herbs, garlic, white wine, and olive oil, our fromage fort will bite back!

We have an opportunity to get sheep milk from a nearby dairy, and I'll be making a couple of new cheeses from it.  My preliminary batches were very good, and I look forward to trying some goat and sheep blend cheeses, too.

However, before we can get back to the farmers markets, we've got to make it through "Thin Soup Time" of winter. 

My granny always said, "you do what you have to" to get by in this world.  So we're doing just that.  Dwain and I are resourceful types, the kind of people who "take a lickin' and keep on tickin'".  We're planning the new production season, watching the does' bellies swell with all those little babies, and making lists of all we need to do to be ready for kidding season.  And we're getting a much needed rest before all the spring excitement.