Well That Doesn't Happen Everyday

Tonight while preparing dinner I hear all the dogs in the neighborhood going crazy. It makes quite a disturbance because there I share a property line with ten dogs. Add in the five at my house and you have quite a cacophony. I went to the front yard to see what the issue was. As I opened the door I saw a donkey and miniature horse cone barreling down the street right into my yard.

In hot pursuit was a huge black truck. The driver jumped out with a rope. I asked him if he needed help. He said no, they would just run away again. So I did the neighborly thing: I plopped myself down on my porch, called my kids outside and we watched this couple try and catch their spooked horse and donkey.

It took them a good ten minutes, but it was quite entertaining.

Having had escaped livestock before, I know that those people were not having a good time at all. I've been there. Frustrated, out maneuvered by an animal that also out weighs you. You want to call its name and have it come, but alas, it does not know its name or it doesn't care.

I have to say though, it was a funny experience (mostly because it was not my livestock that was out) and tonight I am grateful to live in a place where we can watch a free, before dinner rodeo.

I Need a Vacation

You ever have one of those weeks where you try to be a super nice, caring, fun mom and all of your efforts are met with screaming, yelling, fighting and a barrage of verbal abuse that makes you rethink continuing to rear the demon spawn that seems to have replaced your children and are running wild in your house? No? Just me? Alright....

A lot has happened this week and pictures will be coming shortly, but tonight I just don't have it in me. 

We got a 10 week old Nubian goat on Thursday. Her name is Mary Jane. She is WONDERFUL. We all love her, especially Elliot. The first night she screamed well into the night. While I did not get video of her screaming this is a close approximation of what she sounded like...for HOURS. Luckily one of our neighbors work on diesel engines until three or four in the morning and the other one smoke copious amounts of weed, so no one is really going to complain about our goat screaming. She has done better every night since then. Though sometimes during the day I think that Quinnie is upstairs crying, but it's just the goat telling us she would like some attention. 

We plan on breeding her next spring. We have become fans of goat milk and we have always been fans of goat cheese. We are really excited about being self sufficient with our dairy! 

I also painted the girls room. (Pictures to come on that too.) It came out so cute. I have to hang the blinds and make the valances still but I will probably do that Monday. 

The one thing that has saved my sanity this week is something that Julia said to Leigh earlier in the week. Julia was staring at him and not saying anything. He looked at her then looked away. She continued to stare. He finally looked back at her and said, "What?"

"Are we having a staring contest? Because if we are, I think I'm winning."

If they didn't say off the wall stuff like this occasionally, I'm pretty sure I would have run away from home long ago. 

Now Inturrupting California to Bring You Pima County Fair!

We love Pima County Fair. We have gone almost every year we have lived in Arizona. It seemed like we were not going to able to go this year. Between birthday parties, farm maintenance and church our weekends were full. On an impulse, we blew off church the last Sunday and went to the fair! It was the day of the small stock auction.

We are quite well versed in auctions...well TV auctions. We have never actually been to an auction. Leigh REALLY wanted to bid. We knew we could not afford the first auction.

For those of you who have never been to a 4-H auction this is how it goes: the first auction prices are high. That money goes to the kid to support them in their 4-H efforts. Then the buyer can either keep the animal/animals, give the animal back to the kid, or donate the animal back for resale. At the resale auction, the original buyer designates a charity, and the money the animal(s) bring in the resale auction goes to that charity. We were in the market for the resale auction only.

Even though we were only buying in the resale auction, sitting next to Aunt Chrissy and Mike has its perks! Adobe, Neil and Chrissy, Mike and Kathy, and Dr. Page purchased at the first auction. They decided to keep their animals, and somehow they all ended up in our car on the ride home. So in our minivan we had Leigh and I, the 5 kids, 9 chickens and 4 rabbits.

The 9 chickens were meat birds, so they were roughly 8 pounds each! We have already dispatched, vacuumed sealed, and frozen 3 of them, but tomorrow we take the knives to the farmer's market to get sharpened. (And as a side note, if anyone is looking for a gift for me in the near future a shun meat cleaver would come in SUPER handy!) The other 6 will meet their maker on Saturday.

The 4 rabbits that we got are Californians. They are meat rabbits, but 3 of them were the Grand Champion Meat Pen (I think!). Julia has expressed a huge interest in raising rabbits for 4-H. Leigh has decided that even though she cannot show until she is 8, having her learn on these rabbits is a great idea.

We added Elliot's rabbit, Penny Bunny, to the group. She is so happy to have bunny friends. Julia got a notebook and a magazine about rabbits from the feed store. She is so proud of them. She shows everyone!

Now, back to the auction. Since we are not high rollers, we waited for the second auction. I had left the barn and went to to the Old Pueblo Hall because the kids were going stir crazy. Leigh came walking up with a timid look on his face. "How much was it?" I didn't need to ask what he bought, I already had an idea, but it looked as though he spent too much. He really didn't spend too much, but we had a new addition to our homestead: Bailey!

She is a pygmy goat. She is 6 and not all that personable, but we think we can win her over. More than anything she is incredibly stubborn, so, come to think of it, she will fit in nicely here! So yes, that would have been 2 adults, 5 kids, 9 chickens, 4 rabbits and a pygmy goat in our van on the way home...we felt REAL classy...

Bailey's first night went well, then I spent all day Monday cleaning the north east corner of our yard to make her pen. I dismantled some old doors we had and attached them to the fence we share with our neighbors. They have 2 very aggressive boxers that got into our yard and killed 3 of our chickens once so I didn't want her to be able to see them. Chrissy also told me that the number one goat emergency is dog attack.  I cleaned out a shed we had and transformed it into a shelter. We got water, fencing, hay and straw all set up for her. Then we went to family home evening at the Laney's house. The first thing I did when we got home was go out back to check on her. I reached down to scratch her neck and my hand came back sticky with blood.

After further inspection of both Bailey and the fencing, I found a few large and many small gashes on her neck and a hole under the fence large enough for one of the boxers to get it's head through. There was no note, my neighbor never said anything. Not an apology or anything. (Different neighbor than the one who killed Zoe, by the way) Luckily her injuries were not life threatening. I cleaned her up, but then at 8pm I had to go and rework the whole enclosure. With Heather's help we were able to move the boards about 5 feet from the fence and make them higher. 

The next morning the neighbor put railroad ties and re-bar all along the base of the fence. Yes, he fixed the issue, but not so much as a "Hey, I hope your goat is doing okay." 

She is warming up to us, but I know she is lonely. Goats do better with goat friends. So while we were at the fair, the last thing I did was buy a Nubian doeling. She is not quite weaned so we will be able to pick her up the end of next week. Her name is Calamity Jane. We will probably shorten it to Jane, but I am so excited for her. I know Bailey will be much happier with a friend.

The kids adore the goat. Elliot and Liam go visit her every morning. They play in the pen. Goat and boys chase each other and fling hay around. Our little homestead is coming together nicely. 

What's in a Name?

Well, when the name is Mediocre Acres, a lot can be inferred from that name...and those inferences are not exactly positive. We have been trying to come up with a name we can put on some of our products in the future. We have tried out a lot of names, but none fit. 

But last night Leigh made a suggestion and it was PERFECT!! Muckey Duck Farms. 

Some of you who have ventured down Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA might remember a little bar called The Mucky Duck. If you can't remember, look here. Anyone who ever had to stand in a safety brief  at DLI will remember the Mucky Duck as the focus of many of those briefs. 

True we have only had one duck ever on our property, but we have called our little brood Mucklings for years. 

Now I think I have an excuse to build a duck enclosure and get more ducks!! We might even need a pet duck/mascot. 

Oh its all coming together...

We're Fancy!

Leigh and I have had duck on two occasions. Once in Korea I cooked a duck. It was almost inedible. We also had orange duck and Keegan and Laurel's wedding. Hands down, one of the best bites of food I have ever eaten. Based on our split experiences we were a little on the fence about raising ducks for food.

The friend we buy our chickens from gave us a free Muscovy duck as a joke when we got our last batch of chickens. Muscovy's are odd ducks (pun a little bit intended) in that they are not big on the water. They can and will swim, but in no way need water to live. They are from South America so handle heat well. The do not fly well, only about as well as a chicken does. They are easily recognizable because they are huge for ducks and get warty bumps all over their faces. I don't seem to have a picture of our duck but I got one off the Internet. Ours looked just like this.

We were looking forward to duck eggs because supposedly they are wonderful to bake with. We waited and waited...then realized our duck was a boy. It's rough to be a male livestock on our farm. It usually substantially shortens your life expectancy. As soon as Duck started beating up the chickens we knew his time had come. I had never cooked a duck that was edible, so I was nervous. I didn't want to ruin something and have to waste it. I found a recipe for honey duck on Allrecipes.com. I think it came out looking pretty good.

It was not nearly as delicious as the duck at the wedding, but it was for sure edible. A few things we learned though: Braising or slow cooking is a must. The legs were so tough we couldn't eat them. Slaughtering earlier is also a must. The flavor and texture was a lot like beef. Our kids, who neat next to no beef, were not huge fans, but I think it will grow on them.

It will be a few months before we add ducks back to the farm. We would like them to have separate housing from the chickens and be more educated on when to slaughter and how to prepare them. I am happy though that we were able to raise something and eat it. We know that the meat we were eating was free of hormones, antibiotics and additives, and it was humanely raised and slaughtered. That means a lot to us. And you better beilieve the carcass is poised for the stock pot, and the remnants, minus the large bones are destined for the pigs. Waste nothing!

Waste Not, Want Not

We are big on not wasting food here. Something that is harder than it sounds. Anyone with small children realizes that wasting food is part of having kids. We work every day to teach our children where their food comes from and the blessing it is to have a full belly when you go to bed at night. But not wasting food starts far before it gets to the table.

This year we grew about 20 lbs of pumpkins. We forgot to carve them for Halloween. Ooops! I decided I would make them into pumpkin bread. First I had to cut them and clean out the seeds.

Then roast at 400 degrees until they are soft all the way through.

We are a bit spoiled because we have pigs, so once I scraped out the soft squash, I was able to put the stems, seeds and skins into the pig pen. The pigs were happy! Absolutely NOTHING from the pumpkins went into the trash,

I did not end up taking a picture of the pumpkin bread and muffins. I forgot. But here is the recipe for pumpkin bread sweetened with honey:

1 3/4 cup pumpkin puree (this is roughly one 15 oz can)

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil (I used sunflower oil because it is GMO free)

1/2 cup UNSWEETENED applesauce

6 1/2 Tbsp water

1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp honey

3 1/3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1  1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 2 8x4 loaf pans. (I did one batch with 2 loaves, and one batch with 1 loaf, 12 muffins, and 24 mini muffins).

In a large bowl mix together the pumpkin, oil, applesauce, water, eggs, and honey until well blended. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking soda, and spices.

Mix the dry into the wet until just blended. Fold in the nuts.

Bake loaves for 50 minutes, muffins for 18 minutes, or mini muffins for 12 minutes.

Enjoy!

The same day I made the pumpkin bread, I also made chicken stock. I usually buy whole chickens because they are cheaper than chicken parts, also I like to use the carcass for stock. This was good practice because we have had to slaughter a few of our chickens and I like to be able to use every part.

I throw the carcass into a pot with about 12 cups of water, 3 tsp of salt, carrots, celery, onions, and 6 whole cloves. This time I also added some peppers Leigh's grandparents grew in their garden. I have been known to add mushrooms, parsley, basil or oregano too, though the more basic the stock is the more versatile it is in recipes.

Cover and simmer a few hours until the stock is rich and flavorful. I use Ball freezer jars because we live at 4700 feet and pressure canning at this altitude makes a horrible noise and I can't stand it. Once I strain out the stock almost all the rest goes to the pigs.

.

I did say almost because I pick out the bigger bones and they DO go in the trash. I don't want the softened bones to splinter in the pigs' throat. We are eventually going to dry the bones of our food and grind them into bone meal for garden supplementation.

But if that was all that went into the trash out of 20 lbs of pumpkins, 2 chicken carcasses and a few pounds of veggies, I think that was a win!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Children often say very poignant and life changing things. Just not my kids.

Julia and I were talking about how I am trying to stop drinking coffee. I told her it had been only 2 days, but I was going to keep working on it, to which she replied, "Try to go four days. If you don't go four days, I will not be impressed." So that is my mission for the next two days: to impress Julia.

Elliot sat down to dinner. He took a bite of his burger and said, almost to himself, "These are some damn good burgers." Parenting FAIL!

So many other things come out of these kids mouths, I'm going to try and be better about recording them.