Gardening and cheesemaking

Those of you who follow my blog know that last year I made the decision that my dairy goat herd was for milk production, not for raising dairy goats. To that end, I found someone who would take and raise the kids for their own use, and I have all the sweet, creamy milk from my four does. 

Right now I'm getting about four gallons a day. And I'm making cheese daily. 

I got a Dutch style cheese press for my birthday, along with molds and followers. I've made some delicious cheeses. I have yet to be able to save any to age. My family loves cheese. 

Yesterday I made a cheese with some fresh Greek oregano incorporated into it. I got the plant from the Ozark Folk Center State Park Herb Shoppe and it is doing well in my garden. 

Between making cheese, doing chores and gardening, I seem to be having trouble finding time to weave this summer. 

Cheesy Day

I thought I'd take my own advice and start keeping a cheese notebook, as I have several cheeses in process today. But, I couldn't find a blank notebook and didn't want to drive to the store, so, I thought I'd try this. 

Shawn got me a Dutch style cheese press for my birthday, so I can make some hard, aged cheeses. 

To that end, I made two recultureable cultures starting with New England Cheesemakings Mesophilic culture and I started a culture of the "fresh" culture whilst I was at it. I sterilized two canning jars with lids in boiling water, then poured in this mornings fresh milk and put the two sealed jars in a boiling water bath about an inch over the lids for 35 minutes. 

When the timer want off, I ran cool water into the pot and when the milk temp was down to 86 degrees I added the fresh culture and put the jar atop the freezer. When the milk temp was down to 80 degrees, I added the Mesophilic culture and put that jar above the fridge. 

Tomorrow, I'll put the two cultures in the fridge until I can divide them out into ice cube trays to freeze them. 

I also started a cheese in the crockpot with this mornings milk. At 90 degrees I added 1 cup of sweet homemade goat's milk yogurt ( made with New England Cheesemakings sweet yogurt culture) and then I let it set at that temp for 3 hours. The keep warm setting on the crock pot was too warm so I unplugged it, but the temp seemed to maintain. I added 1/2 tab of dissolved Marschalls rennet at 12:20 pm and the temp was still at 90. 

Today is humid, raining off and on and the outside temp is 76 degrees. I have the house windows open. The weather app says rain will start again in 51 minutes, so I'm going to go feed the bottle baby lambs and work in the alpaca fence while the curd forms on the crockpot cheese. 

Homesteading economics

"But don't you like meat?" queried the young woman as we talked about my goat flock. I had just given away the last of my crossbred goat kids to a family who raises them for their own winter meat supply. 

"Oh, I like our own farm-raised meat well enough." I replied. "Just not well enough to spend my milk supply raising meat."

I'd far rather have my milk for putting in my coffee, making cheese and sharing with my friends and family. Homestead economics. 

C is for Craft

Merriam Webster - Craft

 noun \ˈkraft\

: an activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands

: a job or activity that requires special skill

crafts : objects made by skillful use of the hands

My life is devoted to the perpetuation of the skills of creating things with your hands. I work with more than 50 independent craft artisans at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. When I'm not at work, I'm at home on our farm in the Arkansas Ozarks, spinning, weaving, dyeing, felting, crocheting and finding other ways to create beautiful things from the fleeces from my much loved angora goats and Jacob sheep.  

Crafting has always brought peace and relaxation to my life. And I've watched learning to create things with their hands light a spark in young people's eyes and lives. This is an idea that I'd love to develop into a full essay, but I need to go rinse the purple wool I have in the dye pot...

B is for Boys

           B is for boy. Boy sheep and boy goats.

Lots of fuzzy little critters running around in the alleyways between the fences.

2014 has been a slightly boy-ish year here on  Havencroft Farm. 

Out of nine lambs on the ground, we have six boys. We only have four ewes left to lamb. A few if those boys look to be ram quality if you are looking for a new herd sire, let me know and I can send you pedigrees. 

Hester's lilac boy is very nice. We'll see how all their horns come in before we decide who remains a ram.  

Out of five angora goat kids, three are boys and we're done with babies in that flock. 

Happy B-day. April 2, 2014. 

Blogging from A to Z - April Challenge - April, Angoras & Asparagus

I've joined the Blogging from A to Z - April Challenge to get me back to writing here. In the busy days of February and March I've found I do all my chronicling on Facebook, posting quick and easy pics and posts of new lambs and kids and happenings in the garden.

So each day in April, skipping Sunday, I'll do a post featuring the next letter in the alphabet. Today, April 1 is A.
A is for April, I love this month, with flowers and garden work and lots of baby lambs and kids to entertain us as we work.
A is for angora goats. I love their personalities - and their fiber. I've just finished a fantastic Fantasia rug and am working on a rug from Ishmael's fleece. I dyed more of Tillie's most recent clip in some pinks for spring.
A is for asparagus... I think that's what we'll have for dinner. Asparagus with goat cheese and fresh eggs from our wonderful hens.
Life on the farm is full of delights, from A to Z.

Jilly and Juxty, Tillie's new kids, love their mama Llama.

Wintery mix, again

Five degrees this morning, wind chill -17.

Yesterday started at 38 and rain. It changed to pellets of sleet after lunch at mom and dad's. We shoveled the heavy sticky ice off the shelters as we checked babies, bottle fed Julep (who was born a little early and her mama, Hailey is short on milk) and fed everybody some extra lunch hay. We listened to the thunder through the thick clouds and we're thankful the predicted winds didn't materialize. 

The ice was crusting everything at 4:00 pm and we broke it out of feed pans and off water troughs. Doing evening chores at sunset, we brushed the pelleted heavy ice off of everything, freezing our gloved hands in the process. 

Then at 10:00 pm, Boomer's shelter collapsed under the weight of all the new sleet. He and George were outside and fine. All four people went out and shoveled, heaved and propped the shelter up with pallets. It's standing fine this morning. Again, we shovel crispy ice off shelters and were very glad it was pellet stuff that didn't stick to trees so we kept our  electricity. 

The angoras shelter seemed to be collecting the greatest weight of ice, or maybe it was just because we cleared it last. 

Finally, about midnight, the precipitation change to a light and fluffy snow. 

We started morning chores about 6:30, doing them in shifts with the wind chill so low. The stuff covering the ground is crusted over, frozen hard and easy to walk on. There is ice covered with ice pellets, covered with ice and powdered with snow on top. It's not supposed to get above freezing for several days, so at least we have the current consolation that this stuff is easy to get feed through. 

Even though I had flipped the feed pans after last nights chores, I still had to chisel them out of the ice this morning. We've hauled buckets of hot water from the bathtub to everyone this morning and will start a new round of water buckets shortly. 

Now, all the sheep, goats, horse and llama are tucked into well bedded shelters out of the wind. The humans, dogs and cats are warming up inside the house. And I think we are all hoping this is the last round of "wintery mix" for this season. 

Shearing 2014 begins

Today was in the 50's with snow melt running off the hill and covering the ground with water. The long range forecast looks clement, so, we started started shearing. 

Ishmael was our bell wether angora goat. Having been sheared in late July, his fleece was more than ready. It is so full of winter hay, I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do with it. 

I trimmed up Tillie's tummy and checked Fantasia, who is due March 1. I'll let her fleece grow a bit more. 

Moving over to the Jacob sheep, we sheared Nessie, who is due March 1. She has a udder the size of a jersey cow. We also sheared Higgs, who is due to have her first lambs in March. 

Ishmael putting up with his hair cut. He was very happy to go scratch and soak up sunshine when we let him off the stand. 

Havencroft Farm welcomes our first angora goat kids of 2014

This morning about 6 a.m., Chantilly Lace, the pretty angora goat doe on my signs and business cards, went into labor. Tillie's eight-years-old (a bit old for a goat), but she's never had kidding problems. However, things just haven't seemed right, so I've been checking on her at night for the last two weeks. Between the single digit temps, snow, ice and her not acting quite right, I just wanted to keep an eye on her.

Her water broke, but her labor just wasn't progressing. About 7:30, I checked and found feet facing the right way. We waited a bit more, but she wasn't pushing at all. I checked again, but things didn't feel right, so we headed to Doc Nixon's. 

Doc looked out the door at the two feet protruding from Tillie's birth canal, said "uh oh" and went back into the clinic. 

Not what you really want to hear your vet say. But he was back in a few minutes and shortly thereafter a little buck kid was born. We named him Juxtaposition. He didn't want to get born, so his head was turned back. Doc let Tillie rest about 1/2 an hour, but she still wasn't pushing, so he helped little Jilly-doe into the world. 

Tillie, Jux and Jilly are home in the barn with a heat lamp on them now. It only got up into the 20's today, and is forecast to be 11 degrees tonight. They may spend the night in my workshop. Luckily, it is supposed to get up to freezing tomorrow and climb steadily to stay above freezing at night by the weekend. I sure hope!

Havencroft Farm pic of the day

Nilly (Vanilla Bean), our 11-year-old Jacob sheep ewe, who was born blind, shares her breakfast with one of the silver-laced Wyandotte hens. 

Sheep to squirrel - a needle felting journey

This is Demi-sheep. She's our Iceladic x Corriedale ewe. Her mum was Chalcedony and her daddy was Homer. She loves her morning grain, especially in this winter snow. Demi grows the wool I'm using to needle felt the Arkansas gray squirrels I've been making. 

This squirrel is needle felted from Demi's wool over a wire armature. He's excited to be headed to the Arkansas Flower and Garden show where he'll be a part of the Ozark Folk Center secret garden. 

February 8, 2014. More snow.

Brrr...
Last night's somewhat unexpected inch of snow kept me home from a tourism conference where I was supposed to help promote this beautiful, wonderful land that we live in.

We live in the Arkansas Ozarks. The northern edge of the south, the western edge of the east. Usually a moderate climate with four distinct seasons. This winter is a real, solid winter.

We had our first snow storm the first week in December. We've now had snow covering the ground for most of two months. But it's just winter, and spring is on the way.
Today I went out to take pics so that I could look at them to cool off this summer. 

Tillie is due to kid next week. She'd like to go up in the woods.

My sweet potato slips have been too cold to do much.

The non-breeder pen likes their shelter.

Pequena and the angoras have trouble walking on the ice crust over the snow.

The yearlings are loving playing in the snow.

The Alpine dairy goats are hoping for some sun.

The Lamancha dairy goats prefer to stay near the shelter.

The bred ewes hang out in their shelter, but they do have to
walk down the hill for water. They need the exercise.

Boomer and George keep an eye on the western front.

Durfria was born in 1982. She's seen plenty of snow.

It's been a winter

Right now, it's 13 degrees outside. There are 5 inches of old snow under an inch thick crust of ice that has been there for two days. The sky is low and gray, but there is no more snow predicted for a few days. However, the high is not supposed to hit freezing until the next snow arrives. I'm not complaining.

Old Durfria and the dairy goats share a comfy shelter.

Nestled in for winter at Havencroft Farm

I've said many times that this has been a perfect weather year - with four clearly defined seasons. Spring sprung wet and warm and bountiful; summer sizzled and allowed a good harvest of hay and crops; fall was glorious and winter has been WINTER. We live on the borderlands between the north and south and east and west of the US. Part of the reason we chose to settle here in the Ozarks is the four seasons and moderate weather. It's been a wintery winter, but so far, we've only had two days of below 0 temps, the snows have not been over a foot and the ice has stayed less than an inch. Moderate. We need winter to keep the parasite and insect populations at bay, to give the trees and other beings some rest and to encourage the sheep to grow thick wooly coats.

This winter did start right on schedule - the first week in December - with a big winter storm that cancelled our biggest craft show of the year, the one where many Arkansas artisans make most of our winter income. That has made the rest of the winter challenging in our community. Now, several storms later, propane prices are sky rocketing. At least many folks in our area still burn wood for heat.

The ewe flock 

The last two nights, I've been out checking on my Tillie angora goat doe, who was bred early. She's due in the next week. We don't start lambing or kidding for real until March 1. We have 11 ewes due this year and 8 does. We won't start shearing until the 10 day forecast stays above freezing.

The ice hasn't gotten too thick, and it is pretty.

And it is still only the first week in February, so we should have some winter yet to come. I'm not complaining, just observing and documenting and being thankful that I raise sheep and have lots of wool clothing. I'm just hoping that Spring puts in her appearance on schedule and I can plant my peas and potatoes on St. Patty's day, like normal.

Tech frustration

Ok, so I know that computers really do make my life easier. My iphone is a part of my daily life on the farm. I take pictures to record planting times, breeding dates, lambing times, and moving goats from one pasture to another. I text myself grocery lists and chat about dinner plans with family. I set phone alarms to check cheeses in progress or dye vats on the stove. And I share all this with friends from around the world via my blog and facebook.
But sometimes...
Yesterday morning, I was trying to pack a few orders before the mail carrier arrived. As I was cleaning off the table to be able to sort and pack orders, I found a package I had put together for a friend. Now, I could drive to her house, but I can't remember her mailing address. So, a few weeks ago I had searched my email for it and still come up dry. So I emailed her and she sent it to me. That email disappeared into cyber space. A few weeks later, I chatted with her and she sent it to me again. Then I got caught up in the holiday rush. So, yesterday, I decided her package had to ship first. I looked in my phone chat, no address there... then google chat and back to my emails. Finally, I remembered that the address was in Facebook messenger. And what is an overabundance of tech to me is middle of the road to many folks.

So, I went to usps.com and after entering all my information, the only shipping options were priority mail. There's no hurry on this package.  So I switched to paypal multiorder shipping and entered it all again. Paypal then informed me that it doesn't support the Chrome browser, which I was using. I decided to ignore that warning, I had entered every thing in twice already! and then it crashed Chrome.

So, I opened Firefox, entered everything again. and reminded my self that all of this had really taken less time than getting dressed, finding which car I could borrow because mine is not running, driving to the post office, standing in line and paying $3.00 more to ship this package. Really...really. I printed the label, put it on the box and looked at the time.

I had to get to the feed store before they closed at noon, so I set that box aside and figured I'll pack and ship the orders tomorrow.

So, this morning, I sit down at the computer, getting ready to ship orders. I thought I'd make edits to my Christmas blog post while I have the computer open and while I drink my morning coffee. I open blogger. No Christmas blog post...

I've started doing many of my blog posts from my phone. It's fairly easy. The pics are all right there and the blogger app is simple. I can't fine tune the posts though, so I usually edit them, write photo captions and fix the spacing next time I'm at my computer. A few times I've found that posts have not published from my phone, but it's not a huge deal, I just go back to the phone, find them there and republish them. It's just a little irritation, really. So, now my Christmas blog post is re-published from my phone and I'm done ranting.

Off to pack orders, dye fiber, do body score checks on the pregnant ewes, weave on a commissioned shawl, was the newly spun skeins of Thyme wool yarn and take a break this afternoon for coffee and kuchen with friends and family. It is really a wonderful, full life.

Have a beautiful day!

Quiet Family Christmas

Daddy between the living and dining areas.

We had a nice quiet Christmas I'm Mountain View this year. The weather was sunny and in the 30's. We did chores in the morning. The angora goats were enjoying their Christmas present, the newly fenced east pasture with new shelters for them and their llama. This pasture has been without animals for a year, so it's nice and clean for them to kid   

Then we finished the Christmas presents that needed finishing, baked pies, boiled sweet potatoes from our garden and went to my parents for a wonderful Christmas dinner and gift exchange. 

Lena created a wonderful family photo album for my parents. She had to go through hundreds of pics of goats, sheep and horses to find the people. In one late night moment of frustration, she looked at me and said, "I've only found one picture of you where you're not holding a horse, a goat, a child or a snake - in that order." 

I was amazed that there were pictures of me. I thought I was always on the other side of the camera. 

Merry Christmas from Mountain View!

My mom

Aunt Jeannie and my son, Arjuna

Their treasured Black Forest quilt hangs at the bottom of the stairs to the Quilting Loft.

Creating Connections

Craft shows are more than a way to connect with customers and a place to sell your work, they are also a place to network with other artisans and to forge lasting friendships. The Arkansas Craft Guild's Christmas Showcase is especially powerful for bringing together people and creating lasting friends.

Our booth at Showcase is right across from Leigh Abernathy's Twining Vine Designs booth. Leigh is one of the most incredible women I know, in so many ways. She is a powerful, competent professional project planner, an incredible mother and one of the most artful jewelry designers I know. I think it was at the guild gallery that we actually discovered how well her wonderful shawl pins work with my shawls. But at showcase it has become our standard to send people back and forth across the aisle to get the perfect shawl and pin pairing. 

This year, weather prevented showcase from happening, but people are still finding ways to make those connections and buy the handcrafted items they've been waiting for all year. One of my shawl customers really wanted one of Leigh's silver shawl pins to go with her new purchase. Email, Facebook and phone connections were made and Leigh brought the perfect shawl pins to Mountain View. 

You can visit Leigh's Twining Vine Designs etsy store at

https://www.etsy.com/people/TwiningVineDesigns?ref=pr_profile

If you want to find a shawl pin for a shawl you already have or some of her other beautiful jewelry. 

Leigh is also one of the most generous people I know. She gave me a few of her wonderful copper shawl pins to pair with some of my shawls, including a new design that I haven't tried before. I'll wear that one to work on Monday!

In the spirit of Christmas Showcase, I want to pass Leigh's gift on to you. If you buy a Common Threads shawl from me, either in the etsy store or personally, between now and the end of January, I will include a free Twining Vine Designs shawl pin with your purchase. 

Common Threads Shawls

I'm working a beautiful teal, rust and peach shawl right now on my seven-foot Laffing Horse triloom. I just love the way the yarn textures are creating a secondary pattern in the color pattern I'm weaving. I posted a picture of that discovery on Facebook. I got lots of likes, compliments that made me feel very honored, and an email from someone who wanted to buy the shawl. Wow. 

I had to let her know that this one was a commission. I have two more shawls to weave after this one that are already sold, and then I can design anew. 

Now, many of you know that I don't take orders, but, I will, as I say, take inspiration. If you want a specific blend of colors in one of my triangle shawls, let me know. I like to use 5-7 colors and textures in a shawl, with one being dominant. I have really come to prefer weaving with wool, mohair and silk, but I will use synthetics on request. 

If you would like to commission a shawl, let me know what colors you would like, what fiber types and short fringe, long fringe or no fringe. 

I can let you know how long it will take. The shortest possible time is two weeks. Sometimes the answer may be six months. I weave 15 to 20 shawls a year. 

I can also tell you what it will cost. 

Generally, shawls woven with commercial yarn, no fringe range from $95 to $150. Commercial yarn with fringe are $150 to $175.

Shawls woven with my handspun yarn from our animals take longer. They cost between $225 for unfringed to $500 for kid mohair with long fringes. 

I will not take any money up front. After I get the shawl done, I will email you pictures. If it is what you wanted, then you can buy it. If not, I have a new shawl in stock. 

Shepherd's Crook, our current favorite multi-use tool

Lena clears the ice off the horse & dairy goat shelter.

We are shepherds and one of the tools we learned to love, long, long ago, was a shepherd's crook. We tried several styles, but we find the old fashioned steam bent hickory is our favorite. You just can't leave it out in the weather or it will straighten back out.

We also love our portable shelters for our critters. They allow us to rotate grazing, to use deep litter bedding effectively and to manage our five acres sustainably. But we do have to be careful of snow loads on the hoop houses and tents.

This latest snow came down as ice, then wet snow, then more ice. Kind-of a creamy centered snow cookie effect. It is entertaining to walk on, but has been harder than heck to get off the road and a real challenge to remove from the shelters. We had our first hoop house flatten under the load with this snow. Boomer and his girls are all fine, and those hoop house panels will now be fence, once we get them out from under the snow.

We knew the first morning we had to get the snow off the dairy goat and horse's shared shelter. Shovels and brooms didn't work. Climbing up and tugging didn't work. Finally, we found the great multi-use tool that did the job - our good old shepherd's crook.

Stay safe and warm this winter, it's starting out challenging.

When life gives you snow... Make a photo shoot!

I've been working these last several days, while we've been snow-bound, to get everything I had ready for Christmas Showcase up in the Common Threads etsy store. I've been busy taking pictures and typing up descriptions. 

Our house kitties, who never go outside, have spent the last two days exhibiting all the signs of cabin fever. They've been racing around the house, quibbling with each other and knocking things over. So, I was having a really hard time figuring out where I could set up a photo booth to take pictures of my shawls. My son, Arjuna, suggested I take them out in the snow for pictures. 

It worked great! The diffuse light shows off the weave and the whiteness of the snow lets the colors show true. I'll have to photograph my new shawls every time it snows. 

Life happens

The last several weeks have been spent weaving, spinning, dyeing, broom and fringe tying. I've been getting up between three and four and weaving for a couple hours before I head into work. Then I weave or spin in the evenings. I wove some awesome shawls and rugs in the last few weeks. 

I do take the occasional "sheep break"!

Shawn and Lena have dyed some beautiful color of broom corn. 

Spinning incredible fine kid mohair. 

This year I managed to weave up every rug fleece that our sheep grew into wonderful Fleecyful wool rugs. 

This shawl is even more beautiful in person. I really wouldn't mind keeping this one. 

I tied so many fringes last week that my fingers are still stiff. 

Shawn and Lena had more beautiful brooms than ever. And Shawn built a stunning show booth that should last for decades, showcase both our products wonderfully and win a good many best booth in show awards. 

We both hit our goals for the amount of product we needed to take to Christmas Showcase, the Little Rock show that provides half our winter income. Everything loaded as planned. Booth, stock and suitcases took less than five hours, a record!

We left on time, running ahead of the predicted winter storm. Two hours into our drive, as we were turning onto highway 67 to Little Rock we got a call that the show was cancelled. Stunned is still the best word to describe how I feel. 

The van is still packed, though we brought the food and suitcases in. Several of us tried to put together shows for next weekend. Leigh Abernathy of Twinning Vine Designs managed to pull together a show for Saturday, December 14 in Heber Springs. I'll post the address on Facebook. 

I'll spend the rest of my time off from work posting the new rugs, shawls and yarns in the etsy store and trying some new promotions. And now that we have this new booth, we will be looking for some more good indoor shows. 

Just goes to show you, no matter how prepared you are, life happens.