busy days, and a break

goat update: all the kids have been born, with the last 3 popping out last friday. that brings our total up to 26 kids (13 boys and 13 girls - guess there's something to be said for statistics) and 45 goats total. oy. anyone want a baby goat? 

things are really getting into the swing of . . . things, I guess, around here. days have been full, of transplanting and weeding and mucking and cooking and eating and learning.

a few days ago we transplanted hundreds of bright lights chard starts into the sadeh (our 4 field down on 126, a few blocks from camp). it was really cold and windy, in that I was wearing two hoods and a hat and multiple layers and moving quickly and not getting overheated at all. but we made it through and hopefully they're all happily drinking up the sunshine that's appeared today.

yesterday we finally finished what's been a monumental task over the past month - weeding the strawberries. there's been a vicious annual rye grass interspersed with them, as well as some thistles, which is why some people plant strawberries as an annual, as to avoid this weeding. there were four beds, as well as the paths, but we finally got it down (amidst some more vicious wind) so that's a relief.

I was working in the greenhouse the other day and one of the things I did, along with lauren, was thin some basil. it had been double-seeded, since the seed was old and ellie wasn't sure it would have a good germination, but it did, and almost every cell had two plants. so we thinned and had some really adorable and delicious baby basil to eat - local basil in connecticut in april! who woulda thought.

now I'm off to boston for the weekend, and the forecast is for warm weather and (partially) sunny skies. hooray for a 3 day weekend!

here's a picture of the sunset I spied as I was closing up the chickens the other night (of course the picture doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea).

working, working.

I've been acquiring new skills left and right:

- loading 58 bales of hay on a pickup truck and only having one fall off halfway home

- chainsawing (those things are no joke)

- disbudding baby goats

we can discuss that last one a bit. so the kids are between 1 and 3 weeks old now and their horns are starting to grow in. many farms are going the direction of disbudding nowadays, which means burning their horns off while they're still little. we use a cauterizing iron, which looks something like a curling iron. it gets extremely hot and the actual procedure is quick, just about a minute or so per horn altogether. aitan fashioned a kid-holder (it's a milk crate with a hole cut in it) and we put them in one at a time, sit on the top, and disbud them. I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't hurt them, because they certainly make some noise while it's happening, but right afterwards they bound away and start playing like nothing ever happened, which made me feel better about it. you can think of it like a circumcision, if that helps.

why do we do it? goats with horns ram or gore people, and more often and seriously, each other, which can result in injuries. they also can get their heads stuck in things like grain feeders or fences, sometimes with dire results. when it comes down to it, they don't really need their horns, and it's a much simpler and humane procedure to do when they're babies.

we're also having the back pasture logged, about 4 acres (our neighbor jay is doing it all by himself. he's a beast). with all the tree-felling and the baby-goat-screaming, it's probably better that there wasn't a retreat this week - not really great for the freedman PR.

on a goat-related note, stucco did not make it. it's sad, but perhaps better for her as she was a little damaged from birth and may not have lived a great life anyway.

onward! to other things I have learned.

- how to plant bare-root raspberries (18 inches apart with rock phosphate, kelp and green sand in the hole)

- wild foraging for food!

that one I'm the most excited about. it started yesterday (well, it really started the night before when I was sitting in meg and adam's living room saying, "I want to learn more about foraging") while emi and I were weeding the blueberries. we came upon some mushrooms which I was pretty sure were morels. we got a few independent confirmations and this morning we ate them for breakfast in some eggs. they were awesome.

in the interests of full disclosure, that is a picture of morels that I found on the internet, because I forgot to take a picture of ours before we ate them. but they looked pretty much just like that, except growing out of cardboard mulch and thistles.

then today we were talking about more foraging, which lead to an amazing dinner of pasta with nettle and garlic-mustard pesto and fried fiddleheads. stinging nettles are growing everywhere here out of control and while they sting you when they're fresh, if you steam them for awhile they taste nice and green and spinachy

garlic mustard is also growing everywhere out of control and we just took that off the stem and blended it into the pesto raw.

also an internet picture.

fiddleheads are the immature stalks of ostrich ferns, which happen to also be growing here, not as abundantly as our other dinner content, unfortunately, because they are totally delicious.

those we battered and fried. they came out looking like little fried shrimps and they tasted amazing, fresh and kinda asparagus-y.

then for dessert we made waffles. so unnecessary, and great.

in closing, here is a picture of aitan using the tractor, which I so dearly would like to drive and am so not allowed, to transport his bike.

if anyone's gonna be in the bronx this sunday, I'll be there selling our delicious pickled products at an earth day festival. get at me.

gettin in the groove

back from a weekend in the city (nyc, not sf, nowadays). I had a great time doing many things, including but not limited to:

eating at momofuku (yay!)

buying new shoes (hooray!)

and eating at vanessa's dumpling house (huzzah!).

I did some things that weren't eating too, but those aren't as important.

things are going well on the farm, here. I missed a goat c-section last week, much to my chagrin. ilex was kidding and having a hard time of it, so after awhile aitan called the vet and they cut her open right there in the barnyard, on some pallets and plywood. this while I was having some after-work snacks and cocktails at adam and meg's. dang. everything went well and ilex and one of her kids are doing fine. the smaller kid, stucco (so named by aitan because she was stuck) was having some trouble nursing when I left on friday and having to be tube fed. I haven't been down to the barnyard since I've been back, so I don't know her status.

I'm trying to be more farmy and ascertain things about the outdoors without using the internet, especially the weather. tonight I've been noticing that just listening to the sounds outside can really clue you in - right now I hear some insects and some peepers - little frogs that live around here and make froggy peeps in the evening. that tells me it's not so cold outside as it's been. splendid.

my tick bite site appears to be healing nicely.

time for bed.

and another thing

big news, people:

I got a tick.


I was just sitting here, after eating my dinner, talking to aitan on the phone about watching a movie in the lounge, when I felt a weird feeling on my hip and then there it was, a tick.

lauren pulled it out (best nurse ever) and it popped out with a little pop and one of its legs was briefly embedded but then it came out and now it's kinda sore. but I think it's all gonna be ok. this, of course, after I just yesterday proclaimed my tick immunity.


so, what else is going on?

it was a long day today, starting off with weeding strawberry beds, which are weedy as shit, all filled with perennial grasses and huge dandelion bunches. so we did that all morning and then went to do some nettle harvesting, which is probably where I got the tick. we're doing some experimental tea making this year, so we harvested a lot of stinging nettles which have excellent medicinal cleansing benefits, and set them up in the suburbs basement to dry.

then aitan and I set up the new grain trailer in the barnyard to keep all the chicken and goat food rodent-free, during which the goats took a little stroll around the grounds, after which we had to go round them up. aitan tried to teach me some goat-rounding-up techniques, involving 'walking behind them' and 'waving your arms', both of which I tried, both of which the goats totally ignored. I'm gonna practice though. I'm gonna get really good at rounding up those goats.

tomorrow, more strawberry weeding. it's an all-staff event. we'll see who shows up!

here's a picture of the lovely stream I cross to get home every day/night, in which you can see my cabin in the background.

alright that's all for now!

and more goats

just so you guys can get your fill of tiny goats just like I am, here is a video of some frolicking and occasional falling down.



and here's a picture of the pasture, where I've been working.



it was 82 degrees today. dang.

well

so, there's a lot to talk about! we made it to freedman safe and sound. we pulled in friday afternoon and had a lovely welcome and settled right in, with lots of friendly faces and sunny skies. it being friday, that night was shabbat, which was a nice way to enter into the freedman life. we had some snacks, some cocktails, some singing, some dinner, some laughing, then bed. then we spent all shabbat playing lawn games and biking around and generally just shabbating it up.

wondering where I live? check it out.



since then - wow. today at breakfast I said, "well, I have to update my blog. I should say, 'well, I've been sooooo busy that I haven't had a chance to update' but really the truth is that I spend 70% of yesterday in the pasture talking to old people about goats." (there's a passover retreat here right now, so there's old people everywhere, which is just fine, but a little crowded and crazy). now, since I said that this morning, the truth is that I have been a little busy, so there you go.

what kind of farm things have I been doing, you ask? mostly hanging out with goats. I've seen 5 baby goats get born!



they are so cute, and small, and wobbly and knobbly and stumbly and bleaty and amazing



mahesh agrees




in case you're wondering what goes along with watching/assisting in a goat birth, the answer is not much, if all goes well. the mom does all the work, the kids come out, she licks them off, eats their amniotic sac and placenta (charming), and then they kinda wobble around until they stand up and start nursing. our roles are basically to squirt some iodine on their little umbilical stumps and give the mom some water and maybe a macaroon.

so far we have 19! baby goats. 11 boys and 8 girls. I really think the black and white ones look like little gremlins - I'm pushing for naming one gizmo but aitan doesn't seem too into it. we still have 4 moms left to go - ilex, angie, zilpah and laddi. maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.

other than all baby goat all the time, I've also been doing some light construction in the milking parlor, getting ready for spring and milking and all that.

the weather's been fabulous - 70s during the day, 40s at night but I'm plenty warm in my cozy bed. it sprinkled a little this evening. everyone's been telling me that my stuff's going to get moldy out in the k'far, but I'm going with a strong position of denial, and I'm pretty sure that's going to work.

I drove mahesh to the train station yesterday, so his part in this adventure is over. he was a mighty fine traveling companion and I was quite glad to have him along.

now, it's time for dinner, so that's all for now. oh! if anyone wants to send me anything in the mail, here's the info:

116 johnson road
falls village, ct 06031


here are a few more goat pictures.

twin grove, pennsylvania

we're here in twin grove, PA at perhaps the most awesome campsite ever - so awesome it deserves to be spelled with a c. it is indeed still a KOA, but we're in the middle of the blue mountains, not anywhere near a freeway, and as I type this all I can hear is the river rushing by about 5 feet away from me. well, that and mahesh doing some beepy thing with his camera.


so! today, more driving. we tried to go by touchdown jesus on the way out of cincinnati, but we were foiled by the roadblocks that seemed to exist in pretty much every direction around kreena's house. thanks to our handy gps (thanks jon!) we at least managed to get onto the freeway and on our way.

freeway! ha. try turnpike, as in accidently getting on one, as in paying $25.58 to drive through pennsylvania. once we figured out what was going on, we bailed halfway through (so we only had to pay $11.30) (which only sounds cheap when you compare it to $25.58) and good thing we did because we ended up at this great campsite.

nothing much to report from the drive. we ate lunch on the lawn of a comfort inn. we almost stayed in scranton, but we'll have to settle for just passing through tomorrow.

                                  I made mahesh a hat

                                  pea-mac and toast for dinner

                                                               
                                       lovely river

                                                                
                                      splendid ambiance

did I mention I love this campsite?

falls village tomorrow, we're only about 5 or so hours away! hell, this country ain't so big. 2 more baby goats since yesterday, maybe 3 more goats might kid tonight. I hope just a few of them hold on til I get there!

next time we talk, it'll be from the farm.