We have quite a lot of updates but haven’t had a chance to blog lately.
Two weeks ago we sadly lost our special needs chick, Meatball. If you remember, he/she had a crossbeak and it was getting worse by the day. He/she passed away at 5 weeks old and it was a sad passing for all of us, especially Meatball’s sole roommate Pamplemousse.
We waited almost a week to make sure the death was related to the crossbeak and not some kind of contagious disease and then we introduced Pamplemousse to the Silkies. They immediately became besties and the 6 of them cuddle and play together happily.
The next week the guineas turned 6 weeks old and we put them outside in the chicken coop. They did great the first day and night. Great the second day. The morning after the second night while I was milking, Christine came over to me and told me all the guineas were dead. We were devastated but played it cool…that’s what you do when you’re a farmer I guess. We didn’t want to deal with their bodies and we couldn’t figure it out so we called a farm friend who came over to check out the murder scene. Their bodies were completely in tact. They were all in different spots in the enclosure, not huddled up like they were cold or anything. The oddest thing was that there was a circle where something had run around and moved aspen. That was the only thing. No paw prints outside, no wire pulled off (and we have hardware cloth, not chicken wire, by the way). It was a big mystery.
A few days later on a different part of our farm (this is completely unrelated) I was inside around 9pm while Christine was outside and I got a phone call. It was Christine and she said only “Bring a shovel and flashlight.” That’s never a good sign. So I raced outside and found her on the back deck looking down at the ground below where there was a semi-small copperhead. She said something along the lines of “Go ahead and kill it” and then stared at me expectantly. Excuse me???
Now we’ve reached an interesting thing that is worth noting about us and our relationship. We are extremely opposite in many, many ways. So in this scenario, she is physically less afraid of being near a snake but has an extreme moral dilemma with killing anything. Me? I don’t care and won’t look back at a dead snake. No moral dilemma. It’s kill or be killed on a farm and I’m going to protect my family and livestock. It’s that simple for me. But the paralyzing fear I feel when seeing a snake moving about on the ground? I can’t stab it with a shovel! She had thought because I didn’t have a moral dilemma that I would be the family snake killer. Whoops. While she stared at me and I told her to kill it and we went back and forth, the snake hightailed it outta there. Bye snake.
A few days later while I was milking (why do things happen while I’m milking??) Christine starts yelling that she’s found a rattlesnake in the barn. I couldn’t do anything mid-milking so it was all on her. She updated me on the situation as things went along and the rattlesnake was soon taken care of (she’s probably still upset about it).
And a few days after that Christine headed out of town for four days, leaving me in charge of the farm and kids. After the snake sightings I was TERRIFIED to be alone. But what could we do? I survived the first day alone. That is also the day I learned what happened to my poor guinea keets. I found out that a snake got them and strangled them but they were too big for the snake to eat so he left them all there dead. We know this because of their wet heads…that’s apparently a dead giveaway (pun, I know) for snake killings. There was only one TINY opening by a faucet that it could have gone through. What a bummer.
The second day my friend Travis who grew up on a farm came to visit. He checked out the farm, told me the six areas of concern with regard to snakes…yes, SIX. Eek. He stayed late to help me with evening chores. He came back the next day around noon and in the evening he commented as we were walking to the barn that he hadn’t seen a single snake. I told him he would since he’d said that. So we went off to close the goats into their night enclosure and as I started to shut the door I had this feeling that I should look behind the door…and what did I see there…but a copperhead all curled up right in between the goat pen and the horse enclosure. I started yelling and my friend went and watched it while I grabbed a shovel. There was absolutely no way to kill it where it was so he scared it and it started slithering into the horse area where we could no longer see it. I freaked out that it may be headed inside of the goat enclosure where they were currently shut in for the night. So I opened up their door and told them to be free…they had never had access to the world outside of their pen before and they were excited but confused. They stuck close together and looked around. I also had to grab Chai, the farm puppy, and carry her back to the house and put her away so she wouldn’t get bitten and also grab a flashlight for Travis as it was getting dark. Carrying Chai across the property I decided she is at least 50 pounds now. Lovely. Travis looked for the snake but still couldn’t see it. I walked around to their pen and saw the snake sprawled out under a tree so I yelled again and Travis came over with the shovel. Bye to the copperhead. We got pictures but they’re rather gruesome so I won’t post them.
The next day Travis could not come back and I was left to my own fears and anxiety. But I didn’t see any snakes.
Fast forward one more day when Christine is home and her mother is here visiting from New York. Great day on the farm and they head for an evening walk to the second pasture. I have just finished milking so I head inside to filter the milk and put kiddos to bed. At some point I glanced out the window and what did I see but my MIL with not one but two shovels in hand. Hmm…what could have happened?
Well apparently my MIL killed not one but TWO copperheads that crossed the path while they were walking, still in the first pasture (meaning near the farm animals). Our hero!
Yesterday was an uneventful day but very rainy. Let’s hope the snakes get the memo and go away. We have three other pastures for them to frolic around in…we just need them to stay away from us and our anim
als.
Today they’ve headed over 7 hours away to pick up our 7 new goats. 7’s a lucky number, right? Good stuff. God stuff.
This means that I’m on my own for farm chores. It’s been pouring rain all day due to
the hurricane so I’m hoping that keeps the snakes away too.
I got word from Christine that the adult goat she just picked up is so tiny she’s the size of the
baby goats we already have. I’m having a hard time believing her! She said they’re all just teeny! Three bucklings and three doelings and then the doe in milk.
What an adventure!
Oh my gosh, one final thing…I’ve been making CHEESE! Chevre! And it doesn’t taste goaty at ALL! Which is extra exciting to me but means I won’t win any awards since the cheese at the farmer’s market that is actually
nationally famous tastes so goaty I had to cry to the cow booth about how gross goat cheese is, LOL.
The first time I made it I made plain chevre. It was delicious. I cut it in half and mixed maple syrup and cocoa powder in and made something that tasted like chocolate cream cheese or a rich fudge. MMM!
And then something exciting happened. Someone on my Facebook asked me to make cheese for her in exchange for some veggies from her garden. I had never met her in person; we met in a world wide Facebook group and it just so happened that we live 20 minutes from each other. So we arranged to meet up. She wanted garlic cheese though! That was new for me and I was afraid I’d mess it up, but it turned out to be the most amazing cheese ever! I ended up having to make some for the family here too.
Now if only my clabber would turn out. Two batches have not. So much for sour cream.