Blackberry Lavendar Ice Cream

Back in the spring Dwight and I with our friend, Michelle, and her daughter did the annual farm tour in our area.  A new farm for us was on the tour.  Larry and Lee Newlin began Peaceful River Farm  about 5 years ago on the bank of the Haw River.  Here's a link to them:  peacefulriverfarm.com.  We loved what we saw there.  Lee does dinners and cooking classes.  Michelle and I signed up for a class on Asian stir fry in June.  It was fantastic, and I learned a lot.

The dessert that concluded our class was Coconut Basil Ice Cream:

This ice cream was delicious and easy.  I made some at home and took it on a beach trip with Jody and Sonia and her dad.  Sonia really like it and wondered about the possibility of blackberries with the coconut milk.

Flash forward...it's Sonia's birthday and we have blackberries.  I had to try to make her some ice cream.  I also had some lavender and thought that might be a good combination.  We picked about
1 1/2 cups of blackberries.  I picked a couple of dried lavender sprigs from my plant and blanched the buds from the stems (about 1T.)  following the instructions for basil, boiling and then moving them to ice water.  So I followed this exact recipe (I doubled it), minus the basil, with blackberries and lavender.  It turned out pretty well.

I think my next experiment will be blueberries and lemon verbena.

This is fun.

The tomatoes are waiting attention!

Please visit us on http://www.shadowlandsfarm.org

Improving the Soil

Last year was a little frustrating! I planted seeds and nothing happened...only weeds. I did some reading on soil and its composition. Yep, I noticed some of the weeds talked about in the books I was reading. Big news! You can tell what kind of soil you have by looking at your weeds. You can even tell what nutrients are in your soil by the weeds. So this fall, we've been in the process of amending the soil. We added some mature compost on top of some close-growing weeds we had mowed down. We've added composted goat manure on top of that. We've put out grass clippings and will top that off with leaves. The plan is to not till in the spring but to leave the beds as they are and plant into the grass and leaves. Here's hoping for lots of earthworms, great soil, beneficial insects, and healthy plants!

It's a lot easier to get this done this year. As of Dec. 30, I have a full-time partner in our venture. Dwight has retired from his paying job and is busy at work shoveling stuff for the garden. There's a nice rhythm to life that we have not had before. Looking forward to the days ahead!

Chloe and her pseudo-pregnancy

Well, this will be a strange story, even for you farmers. We have three goats that are four years old, all female, and they have never been bred. Their names are Chloe, Heidi, and Muffin, all appropriately named by our grand-children. So far so good.

Then Chloe starts building up milk in her teats like she was pregnant ... But it was all in her mind ... Except the milk was real. For awhile she was just laying around like she was sick so a round of anti-biotics was prescribed by the vet and after a few days she was better ... But the enlarged teats were still there full of milk. Then after a period, she began to bleed from one of the teats. The vet came and said she needed to go to their animal hospital fir a couple of days to let them work on her there... Mainly to drain her teats and make sure she had no infection left.

The trick was we had to get her to the vet. Chloe weighs about 120 pounds and Susan and I tried for 3 hours to load her in our truck last Wednesday to no avail. We had to lift her about a foot but she was too heavy and no enticements would get her to voluntarily go into the back of the truck. So we gave up. Round one to Chloe.

Then Thursday, our good friend Victor came and with his expertise and strength, Chloe was loaded at 7 am to go to the vet. We unloaded her by using a hay bale as a step for her and an attendant at the vet's basically pulled her out. Whew!

She was at the vet's for two nights and today the vet called and said she was ready to come home. Problem was going to be loading he again ... I was in an all-day class at UNC and unavailable.

So my fearless wife drove the truck over to the vet's, the vet folks loaded her, and Susan was able to unload her at home without much trouble. So now Chloe is back home and was welcomed by the dogs and by Heidi and Muffin.

It looks like she will not have to have her teats surgically removed and we will get the lab result back in 10 days to know if she needs any further anti-booties.

We had never heard of this "pseudo-pregnancy" stuff before but we have just learned of a fox in a zoo nearby having the same thing. So, strange but not too rare I suppose.

Anyway, we hope our special Chloe is on the full road to recovery. Also nice to have a large-animal vet about 20 minutes away.

Christmas Snow of 2010 & Homemade Dog Food

Well, it finally happened. A White Christmas for us. Actually we had one in 1969 in Williamsburg Virginia while we were still young and no kids. So this is the first in 41 years.

We saw it snowing pretty good before we went to bed on Christmas Day and then woke up this morning to about 6 inches and still light snow falling. It was sticking to all of the trees, the fences, anything that was out there was covered in snow. Absolutely a winter wonderland.

Then we realized at 7 am that our dogs were not fenced in. We saw Della scooting around with something in her mouth which we surmise was a deer part and did not see Daisy at all! Oops. We quickly figured the snow had collapsed our mesh electric fence and the dogs just decided to go for a run ... and for Della, a hunting trip. She loves deer meat and bones unfortunately ... and since this is deer hunting season all around us, there Are often delicacies to be had.

After quickly slipping into long johns and warm outerwear, we headed out to fix the fences and feed the farm animals. It was only about 32 degrees so not too bad temperature wise. The fence was down in two places which were easy to fix. Then I went to get Della and she came easily. Usually when she has deer meat she runs away because she does not want to give it up. But she was easy ... back into the fenced barn area. Then we saw Daisy wandering around and she came easily too... actually rolled over in the snow to get her belly rubbed. This is her kind of stuff ... her hair is at full length and she is bred to withstand very cold temperatures and rain/snow. So in the goes. And now we're back to normal.

Fortunately, the goats were locked in the barn and hence could not get out when the fence is down. Also the chickens were locked in their chicken house bu their fence was also OK ... I tidied it up a little and we fed the chickens. They really do not like snow so they hardly ventured out all day. We tried to make them a path from the chicken house doors to the feeder and the water can but I'm not sure it was used. Anyway, that's their problem.

Now, one last story. We went to the feed mill on Christmas Eve to buy dog food and found it was closed early. So we only had one day of doig food lefyt with the big snow coming. Susan decided to make homemade dog food. One pound of Rob Hogan's hamburger (top quality, grass fed beef!), carrots, blue berries, rice, and cabbage - quite a gourmet meal. After Susan cooked it all together, she took it down to the pups and they inhaled it. Tomorrow will be back to normal and will likely be a big let down. Have you ever heard of homemade dog food?

Anyway, it's been a great day of rest, puzzles, facebook and phone calls. Tonight, the hot tub in the snow.

Oh, back to that Christmas Day snow in 1969 --- we went to Williamsburg for three days and drove to Susan's home in Snow Hill on Christmas morning. While in Williamsburg it snowed and it was quite memorable and striking. We met some friends somewhat accidentally and on Christmas Eve we rode in their 1948 Bentley down the Duke of Glouchester Street in the snow. Obviously, we have never forgotten it. Susan made the cutest red velvet dress to wear at the formal meal we had in the Williamsburg Inn (it actually had an open back) and she wore a fur coat. We went to a string concert in the Governor's Palace on Christmas Eve as well. Those were the days of youth with a full life ahead of us. We have photos somewhere and maybe we can post some of them one day.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Dwight

Another Animal Story

Susan went down to let the goats out of the barn today and noticed that Daisy, the trusty guard dog, had a small animal in her mouth. After taking a few more looks, it turned out to be a small possum. Daisy was having a good time just tossing it around. It appeared dead.

So I'm dispatched to deal with a dead possum in the goat yard. Daisy promptly hid it in a hole she had dug but then she took it out and dropped it in the barn. Up I go with a shovel to scoop it up and out but, guess what? It was not dead - it was playing possum (makes sense that a possum would be playing possum I suppose) and it began to move a little when I picked it up in the shovel. Well, out it went through the barn door. Then I took it up in the shovel, it began to rouse up a bit more, so I went about 100 yards down the farm road and heaved it into the woods. Maybe the possum will yet grow up and enjoy life but it probably will not wander into the goat yard where Daisy lives anymore.

And that's the way it is here on the farm today.

Dwight

Animal Behavior

Several animal behavior situations have arisen recently that amaze Susan and me and I wanted to share those with you:

1. Our goats have learned to unlatch the farm gate at the barn and go outside on their own. We find it hard to do at times but we think Chloe as the lead goat is the ring leader. Still trying to figure this out.

2. Our cat Tom was locked in the laundry room (so we could eat dinner in peace) but was able to open the outside door to go out. The door opens to the inside which is all the more remarkable. Now we have to lock all the doors to keep the cat either in or out.

3. A pair of cardinals continues to roost outside my office window and the male is pecking continuously at the window. This is due to the reflective nature of the window and the male is protecting his female against what he thinks is another male in the window. Meanwhile I am trying to work in my office. Last year, I tried everything possible to run them off (including expert advice from a birding friend) but nothing works until it gets dark outside and the reflection is gone.

4. Our baby chickens, that have grown up to be adults, are now transitioned to the adult hen house for their nightly roost. We had left the second hen house in the chicken yard and they were using it but we wanted to put it in the garage as it was not designed to be a long term chicken house. These chickens learn fast where to go at night.

So our animals continue to amaze us with what they do.