Day 8

Today is feed day.  The grass is five inches tall and has grown in.  The tray weighed in at 4.5 lbs.  That's a little disapppointing because I've read that others get 7-10 pounds of fodder from each pound of seed.

The roots have grown together, but not strongly.  I think we're getting a lower germination rate or lower growth rate.  Tomorrow we'll start another batch with a slightly different process and see if we get better results.

We tore up one tray.  The chickens got half and it was gone quickly.  The other half we gave to Christina.  She nibbled at it and then ignored it, so we gave the rest to the steers.  She's slow to warm up to anything, so we'll see how she feels about it tomorrow.

Day 7

Tomorrow is the day!  The grass is four inches tall and the roots are turning into a big mass.  Tomorrow we find out what Christina and the chickens think.

Today we also start greenhouse shopping.  Doing this at full scale will require a different set up and we think a greenhouse will make it easy.

Day 6

The grass is thickening and 2-1/2 inches tall.  I've read that the sprouts are grown 6-7 days, but I'd like to see them up at 5 or 6 inches.  We might wait an extra day.

Living sustainably means cooking sustainably which means starting from the basics.  My kids laugh when people put a box of this and a can of that together and call it cooking from "scratch."  We've learned to start with just the basic harvested food.

Today it was chicken soup.  We started by simmering three of our stew hens for a day and then stripped the meat off.  We ended up with quite a good pile and it wasn't tough or stringy.

Then we start adding stuff to the pot.  Some frozen chicken stock bumped up the flavor.  Grated zucchini, dry beans, and brown rice added robustness.  Onions, turnips, potatoes, and celeriac brought it together.  And then we added green beans because we have so many in the freezer.

Our method of add what we have makes for a different flavor every time we make soup.  This one turned out to be one of the best chicken soups I've ever had.  Thank God we've got so much of it.

Today is the first day of Spring.  The darkness and coldest of winter is something I grit my teeth and tolerate until it's over.  So spring has special significance for me.  God is bringing the sun back!

Day 5

Five days in and those little anemic blades are thickening up.  I'd say they are two inches high. 

I've read it's essential to rinse the sprouts twice a day.  We've started using the rinse water from the milking machine.  Just before we use the machine, we rinse it with sanitizing water that has a small amount of chlorine.  We figured that sanitizing water would help hold down mold and bacterial growth in the sprouts and it's recycling water.  So far so good.

Day 4

Those little grains are sprouting just like the pictures!  The little threads have turned upward into small grass and started to green.

Day 3

We are at Day 3 for our hydroponically sprouted grain for the animals.  Those little white things sticking out of the grain have grown upwards of an inch long. 

We talked with a dairy farmer and she said that barley fodder tests lower protein than alfalfa hay.  However, there are a lot of things other than chemical composition that determine food value.  It's a reminder that we need to switch Christina over slowly and watch.  We have to keep her healthy. We've started tracking the hay and milk closely so we can compare after we start fodder.

We think Christina is getting used to the milking machine. We noticed that the milking goes faster, so we assume she's letting down easier.

The rain continues and I pray those little grass seeds in the pasture are loving it.

Day 2

Overnight those little wheat berries sprouted.  They have little white things sticking out of them.  Wa hoo!!

Yesterday it seemed the grains were drying out a bit, so we put covers on them. Today we'll leave the covers on.  We want to keep them moist without letting them get moldy.

It suddenly occured to me that it's March and it's time to get going on our annual batch of chickens.  In the past we've bought day-old chicks.  This year we invested in an incubator so we can hatch eggs ourselves.  These are 40 eggs of Black Astrolorp and 2 Bramhas, just for fun.  They won't start developing until they get warm and they'll hatch 21 days later.  For now we leave them at room temperature.  Next Monday we'll turn it on and look forward to an Easter Monday hatch.

Our cow buying decision remains incomplete.  The older cow we were hoping to get is not pregnant.  Bummer.  Plan B is to buy a heifer who will have her first calf this fall.  

Fodder Experiment

We've been reading lots about sprouting grains hydroponically to feed the cows and chickens.  By sprouting them and letting them grow up to 6" tall, the food value increases by four fold and feed costs go way down.  I've also read that it increases milk production and butterfat content.  We've found a fully self-contained system that costs $9,000 and uses lots of electricity.  We've got to find a better solution.

I found a great discussion on the forum for Keeping a Family Cow.  These folks are having success with lot tech and low electricity solutions.  We decided to give it a try.

We're starting with wheat, just because it's what we have handy.  Yesterday we soaked it all day.  The grains doubled in size.

Today we drained it and spread it in trays.  If everything works well, it should be a mat of grass in one week.

We're already having visions of a full system in an outdoor greenhouse.  I think we'll need to do 3-4 trays each day to feed all the cows and chickens.  That means 21-28 trays going at any one time. 

Last weekend we finished spreading the compost on our back garden and got it all tilled in together.  My husband got the furrows cut and now we wait.  They say it's good to let the manure and soil make friends for 2-3 weeks before planting in it. 

Our indoor starts are doing well while they wait for outdoor planting.  The cabbage and brocoli are huge and I don't know if we'll be able to wait 2 weeks to plant them.  These celery have to wait until late April or May but they are looking fantastic.

We started hardening off the cabbage and broccoli, getting them used to sunlight.  The first day we put them out for two hours and then two more hours the next day, two more the next, until they are out all day.  I failed to do this one year and everything almost died. 

Moving the starts outside gives us more room under the grow lights.  We started tomatoes and peppers so they'll be strong in late May when it's safe to put them out.

While we were out working in the garden, I got close enough to the pasture to see that the chickens have eaten it down too far.  Some of the little grass plants are gone and some are so tiny.  We closed up the gate way to the pasture and we'll keep the chickens in for a month to let the pasture grow and recover.  We also put out some fresh grass seed to help it fill in.  Today it's raining, perfect weather for grass seed to start.  I pray that it grows like mad!

Woot! It's White!

Twenty days ago we bred Christina.  We got a cow pregnancy test kit to see if she's really pregnant.  It's more complicated than the human pee-on-a-stick model, but we can test using the milk (which is easier to obtain than pee) and it wasn't difficult to follow the directions.

The test was $54 for six tests and it will expire this year.  But it's cheaper than a Vet visit and it lets us know sooner.  We REALLY don't want to miss another heat cycle.

After adding two drops of this and two drops of that, we waited 9 minutes to read the result.  It was white.  White is pregnant!  Praise God!  Praise God!

Christina is now officially due Dec. 3rd.

This week we find out which new cow is coming to join our baby farm.  Audra will get a Vet check for pregnancy.  If she's pregnant, she's our new cow.  If she's not, we'll get a heifer who will have her first calf this fall.  We are so excited!

Time to Plant?

The soil tilled, it's time to spread the compost.  This came from the cow shed and has been sitting in a pile for a year.  We feel that we can call it compost now because it has no cow-poopy smell.  Woot!

A box of nine trees arrived on our door step.  I had forgotten that I ordered them last fall, so we had a sudden tree planting afternoon.  The girls and their friends dug holes while I planted trees.  In only an hour we had them all in the ground. These are four peaches, two Jonathan apples, and three Jonagolds.

Spending some time out in the garden gave me the chance to notice a few things, like this rhubarb thinks it's spring.  Rhubarb is one of the first things to "wake up" and I love it. 

I read an article about "phenology."  It says that rather than plant on specific dates, to time planting to natural occurrences, such as plant peas when forsythia blooms.  So I checked out the forsythia.  It's budding out but no blooms yet.  It makes a lot of sense so I think I might try some of their suggestions this year.

Spring?

The temperature got above 60ºF, the soil was dry enough, and I had time in my schedule.  So the garden got its first till!  Cutting into the soil the first time always takes a long time and I only got one of our three areas finished, but it's nice to see that fresh dirt. 

Soon we'll spread compost and till it all together.  Then we'll be ready to cut furrows and plant.

We got a garden cart for the milking machine.  The machine weighs a lot and this garden cart makes it much more manageable.  The kids quickly figured out that it makes easy work of a bale of hay, and our little one figured out how to ride along.

Moving sand has become a regular project for us.  As each load compresses, it makes room for another load.  The areas that have compressed well have become clean and solid, but many haven't finished yet.  We may be moving sand for months to come.

The hens are laying eggs all over the place, but they like nothing better than the hay loft.  The trick for my daughters who gather the eggs is finding them all.

After yesterday being such nice weather, a snow fell overnight and it's winter again.  But that taste of sun and warm made us think that spring is possible.