5th Time's A Charm?

For the fifth time this season, Christina is going into heat again.  We bred her in January, February, April, and June.  And now she's mooing her head off, a sign that standing heat is coming.

We've learned the progression.  First she starts mooing.  Then she gets kind of hyper.  Finally, she goes into standing heat, when other cows jump on her back side and she stands for it. 

Today she mooing incessantly, so we watch.

We asked the dairy farmer who we bought Christina from if there are other ways besides getting jumped on to tell if a cow is in heat.  She pointed out the eyes.  She says when a cow's in heat, she has kind of wild eyes, not content.  So my daughters have been looking in Christina's eyes.  I think those are wild looking eyes.

So now we wait for standing heat. 

But this is the fifth time this year.  Something is going wrong.  We have a shot from the vet that will prompt ovulation to use when we breed her.  If that doesn't work, the next step is to put her with a bull (I really hope we don't have to do that, it will be such a hassle).

This is the part of homesteading that doesn't follow the rule books.

Cherry Harvest

When we started this urban homesteading adventure three years ago we planted a bunch of fruit trees, including this cherry.  For the first time, this spring it was loaded with fruit.  A week ago it looked like this.  Things were getting ready, but not yet.

This morning the cherries were ripe and ready to pick.  We headed out with buckets and cleared the tree.

Then into the house we went and started pitting.  My husband used the pitter and my daughters pitted the old fashioned way.  It's a sticky mess, but we got it done.  I fired up the canner and soon quarts were bubbling away.

By the end of the day we had 10 quarts of pie cherries and one cherry cobbler in the oven.  Since this was our first real harvest, it was also our first real taste.

The cherries were amazing.  Tart.  Plump.  Tangy.  And not a worm in the whole bunch.  Our hope was that having the fruit trees in the chicken pen would prevent worms as the chickens ate them all up.  So far so good!

Beefy's Meat

After enduring butcher day and waiting two weeks for it to hang, we finally got the meat back from beefy.  As we drove home with 518 pounds of hamburger, steak, roasts, and soup meat, I worried.  How would it taste?

When we've told people that we were raising him on grass only, many have advised against it.  If we don't grain finish (which means to fed grain the last 8-12 weeks), the meat won't be any good. It won't be marbled.  It'll taste bad.

But, I reminded myself, I've eaten grass fed beef before and it was good.   So we stuck to our guns.  Beefy started on milk and then ate only pasture and hay.

It was an experiment, and not a cheap one.  In beefy's 22 months, I figure we put at least $1,000 in hay into that steer.  Butcher, cut and wrap was another $400.  That works out to about $2.75 per pound. 

I was excited and trepidatious for that first taste.  We made hamburgers.  The smell was promising.  Then we tasted.  And tasted again to be sure.

The meat is good.  Wait!  It's not good, it's great!  I think it may be the best meat I've ever tasted!

As I enjoyed that amazing hamburger, suddenly beefy's face flashed before me.  This amazing meat came at a sacrifice.  It was a gift from God and a gift from beefy.  My heart filled with gratitude and reverence.  

One of the reasons we started this life was to get away from the industrial food system. Today I found a gift I didn't expect.  I have never reverenced meat before, and I suddenly feel the hollow that left in my life.  I have lived my entire life in deficit because I didn't experience the depth of honor that meat brings.  Today God gifted me with a reverence that makes me feel like a more complete human being. 

New Cow

After all the planning and thinking and waiting, we finally got a new cow.  Sunflower is a heifer, expecting her first calf in December.

She just a little bit bigger than jerky.  She was nervous and hesitant when she arrived, but my husband was able to walk her out to the pasture.

At first Christina and Sunflower jumped around and did some head butting, but quickly they settled down to their favorite cow pastime, grazing.

Sunflower's udder looks so tiny, like a little girl udder.  We're told that it will swell up so big before she calves that we'll wonder how she walks.

Fodder Production

After our experiments with fodder, we are convinced it will work out and have moved into full scale production for the cows and chickens.  Our capital outlay included a 9'x9' greenhouse we got on sale, two shelves from Costco, and 56 seed trays. 

These need to be rinsed twice a day.  We also milk our cow twice a day and run sanitizing water through the milking machine just before we use it.  We are using that sanitizing water to rinse the sprouts and haven't had any mold growth.

We start by soaking the seeds for 24 hours.  Each morning I measure in enough seed for eight trays, about ten pounds, and cover it with plenty of water.

The next two days, the seeds are put under pressure to sprout.  I've read this increases the germination rate, and it does seem to help.  We use a plate with weight on top.  The buckets are covered with a tarp to keep the light out.  Each bucket has holes drilled in the bottom to drain and are sitting in another bucket to catch the water.  They get rinsed twice a day.

Each morning I spread out the next batch of seeds into trays, day 3 for the sprouts.  Their first day in trays they are put underneath another tray to keep out light and add another day of pressure.

By day 4 they have lots of roots and are swelling up to fill the tray.

The ones at day 5 always worry me.  They look dry, but I think they are shedding their hull.  They have the first hints of little grass.

Not much seems to be happening on day 6, but those roots have formed a solid mass and they look less dry.

On day 7 things are starting to happen.

Day 8 shows another inch of growth, but it's uneven.  They must have different conditions at the front and back of the tray.  We found that if we just move them straight up, one end looks much healthier than the other end, so now we rotate them each day and it's evening out.

By day 9 they are strong and healthy.  Frankly, I'd like them bigger.  We are finding that temperature makes a big difference so we started running a space heater overnight.  That seems to help them grow faster and stronger. 

Underneath, the roots have grown into a solid mass.  We pull these into bite-sized pieces to give to the cows.  The chickens just get a full biscuit to peck at.

Each evening I rinse the used trays in the sanitizing water and quickly wipe them down to prevent mold growth.  Each morning I start another batch soaking and spread out the seeds from day 3.  Every tray gets rotated and moved up.  Morning and evening everything gets watered.  There are holes drilled in the bottom of each tray so they drain into the one below it.  It's like a big rainfall.  We have tubs at the bottom to catch as much water as we can, but part of the reason we are doing it outside is so I won't care if some spills on the ground.  With reusing water, the sanitizing water from the milking machine, and the water for soaking, we have enough water to keep them all hydrated and rinsed.

The next step is to run little sprinklers on the shelves and automate the watering. 

We are working the animals up to four trays for our milk cow, three for the two steer calves and one for the chickens, keeping an eye on their health as we go.  The steers and chickens love it.  They come running when they see it.  Our dairy cow gets her fodder at milking time.  Right now she's getting three trays a day and we've dropped her grain from twenty pounds per day to four.  Her milk production has stayed up and she seems healthy.  We haven't seen big drops in hay yet, but we're not up to full production yet.

New Life (Thank You God)

In the middle of night, with my heart still heavy about beefy, I heard faint little chirps.  Our new flock had started hatching.

By morning this chick was the only one, but many eggs were showing signs of imminent hatch.  As we got ready for the morning, the kids watched one pop open and a little dark chick flopped out. 

By the time the cows were fed and the shed was clean, three were flopping around.

Now at 10am there are five little guys.  We can see cracks on most of the other eggs.  Today we will spend watching the miracle of new life.

We expected these chicks on Monday and we didn't know when beefy's day would be.  It feels like God laid out the timing intentionally.  Just as Good Friday and Easter Sunday brought death and life together, God is teaching us about it today.  Death and life are all part of the same cycle authored by God and both are full of grace and love.

Beefy's Last Day

We've known this was coming for the past two years.  We got beefy as a little bull calf to raise for meat.  We've butchered chickens and this butchering we didn't have to do ourselves.  You'd think that would make it easier. 

The day began with my twins dispensing one last hug and taking one last picture.  The girls knew they didn't want to be anywhere near so the twins went to a friend's house and the older girls dashed for Moxie.

The fellow did a good job.  My husband walked beefy out to where we wanted him. We had some grain waiting in a bucket. The fellow just walked over and it was over before beefy noticed.

But it wasn't over for us.  Seeing the guy with a rifle, I darted around the corner and tried not to think.  When I heard the shot, I scurried to the cow shed and stayed with the living cows.  We had them all tied up so they couldn't see anything.   I could hear the compressor running and the smell wafted over. 

They drove off in less than half an hour, leaving the heart and liver in a bucket, the hide lying on the ground, and a pool of blood that wasn't as enormous as I had feared.

What a hard day.  Beefy was such a good cow.  He hardly needed a rope to be lead.  I wonder if eating meat from a cow you didn't know is easier.  Well, I know it is, but is it right?  When beefy's meat arrives in our freezer, we will honor it in a way that we haven't honored meat before.  We will honor it in a way that all meat deserves to be honored.

My daughters are handling this better than I am.  As I looked down at his hide, I said, "oh my gosh, it's beefy," and my daughter said, "no, beefy is in heaven with Jesus. These are just his remains and we can't waste any of them."  She's right.

So tonight we watch youtube videos on what to do with a hide.

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!