mrflatpicker.blogspot.com

19th Winter

2012-02-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I've just past the date that marks my 19th winter. . . I turned 18 on January 27th!

I can't express how thankful I am for all the kind words and gifts I received on my birthday. Thank you all very much! I have everything I need right now, so anything more is a real blessing.

I got in from doing chores and found Mom had cooked up a delightful breakfast of hot oatmeal with raisins and apple chunks mixed in, and besides that she made crispy donut muffins and served fresh oranges.

We usually gather as a family for devotions at breakfast, but that day Dad and David left to do some milk delivering for me. Jonathan took Dad's place and led the reading of the Word and then we sang our morning hymn together.

I opened up the gifts and found some pretty special surprises. Thank you all for the cards and kind words! One of the gifts was a particularly practical item from Andrew. He gave me was a compact, sturdy little LED pocket flashlight. I carry it around with me all the time now. It's the perfect size for a tool light and bright enough for spotting varmints at night. Thank you Andrew!

Jonathan gave me a very inspiring and thoughtful gift. It is the book called The Family by J.R. Miller which gives a very important Christian perspective on what family life should be in terms of God's Word. I will cherish the book for many years to come. Thank you Jonathan!

Mom gave me a clever and creative gift. Have you ever seen a tea tumbler? I hadn't. It is basically a glass thermos, so it is easily kept clean, with an insulated lid and a mesh straining insert that fits into the mouth of the bottle. In the early morning before I go out to the barn, I can boil a little water and pour it into the tumbler with the tea leaves, and then cap it and let it steep. The mesh filter strains the tea as you drink it so once the water is poured in you are ready to go. I don't have to wait until it has steeped to pour it into the thermos to drink, it is ready immediately. Thank you Mom!

Tea Tumbler

Dad and Mom gave a gift that will certainly free up some time for the bottle washer. An envelope with money towards a dishwasher (which I am now looking to purchase). I appreciate all the time Mom has volunteered to keep the cabinet stocked with squeaky clean bottles, but with the addition of an automatic dishwasher in the near future I hope she will have more time to do the things she has set aside due to bottle washing. Thank you Mom and Dad!

Me holding the candles for my cheesecake dessert. Mom has a great recipe for cheesecake that uses homemade yogurt cheese and whipped cream for the filling.

One gift I received from David a couple days prior to my birthday. He bought me the DVDs of the new movie Courageous and the not-so-new Flywheel which were made by the Kendrick brothers and Sherwood Baptist Church. I hadn't seen Courageous before and am really thankful to have been able to see it and have a copy to show others! It delivers a powerful message of the importance of godly fatherhood. You can't help but feel the hand of God motivating you to be like the courageous fathers that you see in the film. It is a great tool for influencing the minds and lives of all who see it. Courageous is now sold in our local Walmart! Thank you David!

Sincerely,

Peter

". . .for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Philippians 4:11

Thank you Andrew

2012-01-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

Here's the finished results of an idea that I had a while ago. We recently submitted these to be printed on magnets by Vista Print.

Each family that owns a share of a cow will receive one of these magnets to show which cow they they own. Being on a magnet, they can display it on their refrigerator for others to see. I think it will connect them to the farm a little better and make them appreciate where their milk really comes from. It is also a great way to spread the word about our dairy as it will bring up conversations at the customer's homes about them really owning their own milk cow.

Andrew did all the work of designing on the magnets and used his latest new program Adobe Photoshop to do a few touch ups to the pictures. There is few tools in Photoshop that he used to brush the cows and smooth out a few spots that their hair was ruffled. He also swatted the flies on Sandy's nose with one of the tools. Combine the skill of the user with the professionalism of the program and you have some pretty amazing results. Thank you Andrew!

More another time,

Peter

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:" 1 Peter 2:2

Upgrade

2011-04-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Well, even though spring is a busy time of year, we are still able to take some time to do things we enjoy. For me, one of those things I enjoy doing is playing guitar.

Recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to purchase a Blueridge BR-160 guitar at a discount price! It's retail value is $995 according to one dealer. Having a high quality insrument has inspired me to play more now, and I can tell it has made a difference in the smoothness of my playing.

Here's a short tune I played this afternoon. Enjoy!

Amanda's Reel from Bartlett Productions on Vimeo.

Spring Preparations

2011-03-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well, spring is getting busier all the time! After a few very busy weeks of traveling to the homeschool convention and going to Carlton Minnesota, it is good to be back to a routine and be able to get things ready for the season ahead.

We have some new additions to the farm that you have probably heard about from the other blogs. One of them is the new pigs. Blackhock the gilt had a litter of 13 half Hampshire and half Berkshire pigs. We have taken one in the house to feed since it didn't grow fast enough for some reason and it wasn't getting a chance to nurse.

I'm back to milking now, since Della delivered her calf. It's a heifer and she is doing really good. We separated the calf from her mother soon after she was born so that we wouldn't run into problems keeping them apart later. The weather was nice too so there wasn't the threat of it getting chilled. It was an easy and fast delivery.

My days now include about an hour of horse training with David and Darla. It is a pleasure to work with an animal that tries really hard to do what you want. She is learning very well and will be all set to ride by the time the snow has melted.

Peter

Done milking

2011-03-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I just thought I'd let you see the brochure up close. Here's the links to the images:

http://bartlettfarm.us/images/Front.jpg

http://bartlettfarm.us/images/Inside.jpg

Early Saturday morning, Jonathan and I packed up and left for Minot to instruct at the Appleseed at the Minot Rifle and Pistol Club's indoor range. We got a call from the shoot boss the day before saying that he was half way here from Iowa and that he had to turn and head back home for a family emergency. Jonathan was already going to be trained in to be shoot boss, but it was a surprise to us to hear that we were the only full instructors to attend. It all went very well and we had 15 shooters on the line on Saturday, and about 10 on Sunday. One other Instructor In Training was there and helped us out on Sunday. We didn't get any riflemen out of the weekend, but two of the shooters got 208 and 206 points of the 210 needed to score Rifleman or "Expert" on the AQT.

I milked Sandy for the last time on Friday evening. She will be dry now until April 27th (Lord willing!) and then the other cow is due on March 21st. So for now, I have a break from milking! The evening of the first day of the Appleseed, we stayed at some friends place in Minot, which for me, was the first night away from home since December of 2010. I do miss going out and bringing in a bucket of milk though.

Until next time,

Peter

Check it out!

2011-02-19T18:04:00.001-08:00

Hi there,

Well, it's been a very long wait for me with lots of time and work involved. I began planning this out last fall, so I was really exited to have it arrive here in the mail today. Check it out below

Yes, it's what it appears to be -- a brochure! I spent many, many hours writing and revising the contents, and so far I haven't found anything I would change about what is said inside. The topic is Real Milk. "Taste the difference, Experience the Benefits" as the front panel says.

You may be able to read a little from the picture but it would help to have the .pdf version of the page. I will post a link to that full color file as soon as I can. Right now it is stuck on the laptop computer that crashed.

The brochures are not cheap to print. They cost about $.50 cents each so I will be giving them out to very interested people only. We used the company VistaPrint for printing these brochures and the business cards. I highly recommend them for their service, accurate printing and professional products.

Peter

17 Years . . .

2011-02-01T14:12:00.001-08:00

Hi,

On the 27th of January, I turned 17. It doesn't seem like it was very long ago that I turned sixteen, but it has already been a year!

I had a enjoyable morning and received a few gifts from family. David and I shot a couple AQTs before lunch while Dad and Jonathan delivered eggs to town (it was Thursday, our weekly delivery day).

Usually, we have pizza for supper on a birthday, or lasagna, but I asked if we could have tacos instead. And we did! Very good ones too with plenty of tomato and lettuce, refried beans, chips and salsa and good fresh milk too.

I appreciate all of the gifts I received and one was really exiting to me. It's a book called "The Milk Diet As A Cure For Chronic Disease" by Charles Porter. It's a small reprint of an old book written in the early 1900s by a doctor who used a strictly milk diet to cure thousands of patients of various chronic diseases including arthritis, diabetes, and asthma. The book was written to his patients who were to read it before the treatment so it explains what and how to complete the cure. I talked to one person that might be interested in a cow-share, that was probably following this treatment since she had regained part of her kidney function because of raw milk.

Another creative gift was from Andrew. He put together this "dairy award" for me for my "valuable contributions" to Bartlett Farm. See below>>

It's a mini wooded milk tote with the wooden ribbons and tags glued on.

Thank you Andrew, and everybody else! I am truly blessed.

No, those books aren't all mine. Dad gave one to each of the family.

The day after my birthday, Dad and Mom and Jonathan went to Minot for a check up on his jaw surgery. Everything looks good and so Jonathan is able to get back into work slowly. While they were away we had an incident here.

We hadn't stoked the woodstove as well as we should have so it was mostly out with only a few coals in the firebox. David spent about 15 minutes warming up the chimney with newspaper and sticks until it caught the logs on fire. He left the intake open and the flu wide open to let the fire get established, and then he would close it down.

Andrew came in from picking up a UPS package outside and noticed creosote ash scattered on the snow all around outside. He called David and I outside, and we looked for the source of the particles. Then we noticed about half way up the chimney, the smoke was pouring out between the cracks in the two sections of new pipes. Figuring something was not right with the wood stove, I came back inside and closed the air intake and flu on the chimney. I put my boots on and grabbed a jacket and gloves and went outside again to look at the chimney. Now it was billowing out of two joints of pipe! Andrew and I ran to the shop and retrieved the long ladder from it's storage place. We rushed up to the house and ran the ladder up a few rungs and leaned it onto the edge of the roof. I didn't think of it, or tell him to do it, but David had a bunch of buckets of snow ready and waiting for me to take up to the roof. I took one with me and climbed twenty feet upwards to the edge of the roof. After safely footed on the dry shingles (thanks to the snow-tread on my bunny boots) I ran over to the top of the chimney and found pretty much what I expected. Sparks and ash propelled out of the pipe and a roaring sound. That confirmed my suspicions of a chimney fire. I dumped the bucket full of snow into the pipe and it sizzled its way down. I peered down into the smoke-filled black hole and saw that the pipe lining was red hot. A few feet away, on the north slope of the roof was a wide snow drift which I shoveled into the chimney pipe with the bucket. My right hand being bare, since I had taken two of the same handed glove out of my bin, was freezing now so I pulled one of the knit liners I kept in my pocket out put it on. I do not recall the exact procedure for putting out a chimney fire, but I did remember that our good friend Steve talked about using snow to extinguish one. It worked and not too long later the smoke peacefully drifted out of the pipe and water dribbled from the cleanout below. I climbed down and we gathered at the base of the ladder and thanked the Lord for directing us in extinguishing a potential house-threatening fire!

Just another one of those exiting adventures that we have around here.

Peter

Bought a Cow

2011-01-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Praise the Lord! She's home safe and sound.

Yesterday, Dad and I traveled to Oak Hills Dairy near Fordville ND to look at some Jersey heifers for sale there. I had looked around the state (on the phone) and found quite a few farmers with Jersey crossbred cattle they wanted to sell, but only found this one dairy that had what I was looking for.

He had four heifers that he was selling, two had Holstein in them and two didn't. He milks about 36 mostly Jersey cows in a tie-stall arrangement that we got to see. Milk production is most important to him and he gets more money for his milk when the butterfat content is higher, that's the only reason he is milking mostly Jersey and Jersey/Danish crosses. He did have one big Holstein with an udder like a balloon that was milking out about a hundred pounds of milk each day! Poor cow.

Well, I brought my money along, hoping to find something that I liked. I like the Jersey breed the best, partly because that's what we have right now, but also because everyone recommends them for a grass-based dairy operation. They are smaller cows, and give milk that is the highest in milk solids (everything except water) and many people wanting to drink Real Milk are looking for a Jersey cow-share. There is debate among some people wether Jersey or Gurnsey is the best, but a local person here told us that Jerseys winter here much better Gurnseys because of our cold area.

The two Jerseys that had my eyes on were registered purebred Jerseys. The only thing I wasn't sure about them was that they were bred to a Danish bull. I hadn't heard about Danish dairy cattle until now, but I guess they are similar to the Jersey in butterfat content. The dairy was breeding to that since they are running out of bull selection for their AI-ing.

One heifer was due to calve in the end of February, and the other in the end of March, a few days before our cow Sandy due. Not having a warm place to have a cow calve, I decided that it was better to choose the one that was due later.

I bought her and we loaded it up without any problems. This morning when we unloaded her she seemed very gentle. I will be spending some time with her to tame her more, but at least she's not afraid of us.

No, I didn't end up with a perfect grass-genetic cow, but I will try to find something to start breeding to that will improve their offspring's ability to milk well without grain.

I'm happy! So is Della.

Peter

The Milk Room

2010-12-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

Hello,

It was a bright and sunny day here today. The wind is brisk now, and the snow from last night is blowing sideways out in the yard. We had a high of about 1 degree here today, but with the windchill, I think it was somewhere around -20. It's good the animals are sheltered down at the barn so aren't getting the full blast from the direction of the prevailing winds.

Slowly but steadily I've been working on the Milk Room as we call it. It's the bathroom on the main level of the house that will be used for milk bottling and storing. I will be able to move all the dish washing items from down here, up there and free up some space here. It will be much easier for me to keep things clean when they're in a separate room.

This afternoon I put in just a few of the tiles you see in the picture above. They are self sticking, vinyl, grout-line tiles from Menards. The temperature is colder than normal outside, so the temperature inside the room was below the manufaturer's recommended installation temperature. I'm looking for a little heater to put in the room just until we get the duct from downstairs installed. The walls are all done now and the floor is next on my list for that room.

I have a 31 inch stainless steel wash tank to install when the room is done that will be for all the washup after milking. Also, a couple of refrigerators to move in there, a cream separator, butter churn, lots of bottles and assorted cleaners, a cabinet, milk scale and probably a few other odds and ends as well.

I wouldn't take the time and effort to keep the milk buckets as clean as I do, if I were not that I am milking for other people.

I recently got the results from a series of tests I had done on a couple of milk samples that I sent to DQCI Services near Minneapolis, MN. I am very glad to say that the bacteria levels in our milk, are quite low. Meaning that it has an extra-long shelf life.

According to the "Raw Milk Production Handbook," the Standard Plate Count test (measures the overall bacteria levels within the milking equipment) should be less than 10,000/mL. Our milk was less than 2,500/mL.

Another test was Preliminary Incubation, or another perspective on the cleanliness of how the milk is handled. Should be less than 50,000/mL. Ours was 2000/mL.

The measure of the somatic cells in our milk was 140,000/mL. Raw milk producers like to see it below 300,000 but the commercial guys are okay at 750,000. The higher the SCC count is, the more likely it is that there is infection in the udder.

Those tests above, give me an idea of how well I have been cleaning the buckets, and how long the milk will last. I had DQCI do five tests altogether, the last two were both good and they were coliform count, and Ecoli.

Most dairies have each load of milk that they ship out, tested for different bacteria levels, and they get higher price for milk that has a somatic cell count of less than a certain amount. The government sets the standards, and the prices that the farmers get for their milk. I will be sending out samples for testing monthly, so my customers can trust that their milk is as cleanly produced.

Since I do not sell milk, I'm not under government inspection or regulation. This puts a great responsibility on me, to keep the milk perfectly clean.

It is much more motivating to have healthy cows that produce healthy milk when you talk to the person who needs real milk for whatever reason. A large bulk-milk dairy is worried about milk production and dollars rather than clean and healthy milk.

Have a good rest-of-2010!

Peter

I figured it out

2010-12-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

Well, it's been a while since I wrote a blog post on here, so maybe someone happen to see it!

Winter is here in full. I have kept busy doing things that I don't get the time to do when the weather is nice. Mostly studying. Homeschool takes up most every morning, Monday through Friday, and the rest of the time we usually spend maintaining the animals and learning new things.

I've been reading The Untold Story of Milk and taking notes all the way through. It has been helpful for me when talking to customers to have a thorough understanding of the background of raw vs. pasteurized milk.

I think I've finally figured out why the government has been manipulated to restrict the sale of raw milk. It all boils down to the belief in the germ theory, rather than the "internal terrain" of your body.

The problem with the germ theory, if you go down to the very bottom line, is that you become dependant on the government to inspect, and scientists to confirm, that your food is not contaminated. I think most of us mix the two ideas together and say we got sick as a result of catching a "germ", while at the same time working to build our immune system. There still are certain viruses that go around and challenge your immune system, but the fact that they do not make everyone that is exposed to them sick, is evidence of the difference in people's immune system strengths and weaknesses. It's not only because you got the "bug".

If I am correct, then the reason that we can't sell raw milk is because: the big food companies (subsidised by the government) benefit from the drug companies, which fund the studies for their drugs, so that the scientists that ran the studies, write the textbooks that the medical professionals use, to convince the legislators that raw milk is inherently dangerous! So now anyone that needs raw milk (everybody) has to own their cow or move to a different state.

If everyone knew why to eat healthy, and didn't believe the advertising that the drug companies put out, then the big dairies couldn't sell all their "reduced-fat milk" to people, and make money on ice-cream instead.

I want to write a review of the book, so stay tuned. Very worth reading!

Peter

First snowstorm

2010-10-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Winter started with about an inch of rain and then about six inches of snow. It started snowing yesterday morning and didn't quit until this afternoon, and the wind must have been about 50 mph or so. We now have four foot drifts of snow across the driveway so I think were stuck here until the plow comes. We will try to see if we can get out tomorrow morning because Jonathan needs to deliver to Bottineau in the morning and I should go to the church to vacuum in the morning too.

I would have liked it to stay dry for another week so that we could finish outside work. We still have 80 bales in the field to get to the barnyard somehow. The hoop house needs to have the plastic put on without wind and I was hoping to get the barn fixed up before the animals were put in. I'm sure we can get it all done, but it isn't as nice to work in the wet!

I have a refrigerator full of milk that someone from Minot is going to pick up tomorrow for their group. Dad and Jonathan might meet them half way and give them the milk at the republican meeting in Newburg tomorrow night.

We are all toasty warm in here with the wood stove running. That new triple wall insulated chimney works really well.

This morning I calculated how much area the cows covered this summer and figured I used about ten and a half acres of the farm total. Also, the three acre pasture in the big field produced about 46 cow-days per acre over the season. You'll understand what that means if you've read the book "$alad Bar Beef". I will be able to record how many days it is grazed next year and do the same math and see how the production increases. Hopefully with the hundreds of chickens, turkeys and the goats roaming that area, we will see a definite jump in the productivity next year.

I just ordered a few books in the mail; "Grass-fed Beef", and "The Untold Story of Milk" so I want to check out the winter grazing section of the first book and see how it might work here. I've got frozen alfalfa/grass about eight inches tall out there under the snow, but I didn't want to leave the cows out there to dig for it in this blizzard! I guess I have some reading to do this winter.

Until next time,

Peter

Driver's licence

2010-10-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hi again,

This morning Dad and I went to town so I could do the road test for my driver's licence. It was at 11:20 so we headed out early so I could drive around for a bit before the test. We had checked the lights and horn but only tested the emergency brake when we were on the road a couple of miles from home, and found out that it didn't work. That is one of the requirements (says the book) for a safe vehicle. We turned around and went home to tighten it up. Dad screwed the adjuster until we thought it must have been pretty good, and then found out we turned it the wrong way. We got it cranked back the other way, a quarter of a turn at a time, and then it started to work properly. We arrived in town a few minutes early for the test and the instructor didn't even ask about that brake.

I know what you're thinking. The answer is .... Yes! I got my licence.

I drove myself over to the church to vacuum this afternoon and it was pretty quiet in the car.

This summer/fall we spent a day and a half tearing the usable lumber and metal roofing off this cattle shelter at the neighbor's farm. Some of the foundation was from the old barn that was built in the 1800s.

Andrew shot these pictures with his new Canon.

This is the end result of the work. We got about 75 good pieces of twelve foot long ripple tin (or whatever you call it), and a whole bunch of ten foot 2x6s and twenty foot 2x6s.

Peter

Cutting corn, Gospel music festival, Butchering chickens, Trip to town, Apples

2010-08-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Finally, back to my blog! There has been lots going on and I've enjoyed every bit of it, so the blog got pushed aside for a while.

We picked our first harvest of sweet corn about a week ago and we spent an afternoon cutting it off the cobs and freezing it. We staggered the plantings of the corn so that it wouldn't all ripen at the same time so there is more for us to sell later on. We got called up by the owner of the Birchwood restaurant asking us if we would provide 70 cobs of corn for a cookout they are having there, and also asked if we would set up and sell fresh garden produce like a farmer's market for the group attending. That is scheduled for a week from tomorrow, so I hope we have ripe corn!

A week ago, Jonathan and David and I went to the Peace Gardens to hear some of the International Gospel Music Festival. Some friends of ours were performing there in the afternoon so we went after lunch and came back just in time for evening chores. We did get to jam with them after they played which was a lot of fun! We rarely get to play music with anybody so it was really fun. It gets us motivated to learn to play better when we hear other bands do so well.

Tuesday morning while we were doing chores, Dad fired up the scalder and we began butchering chickens about 9:30. Jonathan put together the "whizbang" chicken plucker from a kit and we tried it out for the first time that morning. It didn't meet our expectations at first because the belt was too loose and the pulley would slip, but it did wonders when we got it running right. After a good scald, the chicken would be dropped into the whirling plucker and in less than 20 seconds it would be plucked free of feathers! Sometimes the tail feathers would need to be pulled by hand and we had David check it over and get the pin feathers with his Leatherman, but it did a very clean job of plucking. We did one chicken at a time in it because most of them ended up dressing out at 7-9 lbs. They would make the belt slip if we did two or more. It probably can be adjusted somehow.

The next day Dad and I went to Minot with the pickup to pick up the soffit material for the house and do some other shopping. I did the driving in town and on the way there, and Dad drove home. I can get my full driver's licence anytime, but I don't drive very much so I haven't made it a priority. We are working on finishing the upstairs bathroom and making it into a milk room until we move up there. We needed a few things to be able to continue on the sheetrock and we brought back flooring and a door to close it off. When it is finished, I'll be able to keep all the things I needed for milking and cleanup along with the refrigerators and a freezer and the dishwasher and the soaps and all the cleaners up there. Then the kitchen won't be so cluttered and customers can come in and pick up their milk.

This afternoon we started on the apples that are sitting in the living room. David and Jonathan went to town for a garage sale and stopped at the person's place that we picked apples at before and they let us take them again this year. They have two trees in their front yard and the apples were already starting to fall off so we got them at a good time. Mom is using her new Champion juicer for making applesauce with them and we will probably dehydrate some and can some chunks. The apples are a little sour but they taste good if that's all we have! Our young trees have some apples on them this year but they are not producing very much yet. I was out in the orchard today weedwhipping, and saw that we are going to get plums off of some of the trees and grapes on the vines too. There were a few ripe cherries that I ate. Yum!

I guess I'll go back to apples for now. Peter

Is that a bug I see on your nose?

2010-07-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Shade tent

2010-07-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

I put this shade tent together for the cows a few days ago. I had to stake the back end down so it wouldn't get knocked over, but the front posts are just planted on the ground. At least it makes me feel a little better about leaving them out in the paddock when it's 90+ degrees out.

Peter

My Red Hat

2010-07-30T14:42:00.001-07:00

Hello! I'll just finish the story of the boot camp real quick here.

The last two days of the week long RBC were conducted like a normal appleseed shoot. The shooters of the boot camp were to instruct other shooters that came for the weekend in the skills they had just practiced.

Jonathan and I have been Instructors In Training for the appleseed project for about a year now and have passed the tests for each different level of IIT. This appleseed was our 4th one that we had instructed at.

While we were eating our lunch on Saturday, Jonathan and I were surprised to find that we were going to tell the story of April 19 1775 to the five new shooters as they finished their lunch. We hadn't prepared for telling it this time, but we had recited it once before to a few other instructors that told us it needed work. I told the first strike, and Jonathan told the second and third strike later on in the day. My part came out better than I expected it to, but I left out a few important parts that I forgot all about. Jonathan did better than me and it all worked out fine. The other more experienced instructors added a few things to help wrap up the story and apply it to today.

Then, Saturday evening as we were about to end the day, the shoot boss for the weekend pulled out of his box, two red RWVA hats and handed them to Jonathan and I as he explained that we had earned our Full Instructor status. Now we are on our way to becoming Shoot Bosses!

Peter

A lesson from the Boot Camp

2010-07-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

We were thankful to be able to come home for a shower and to do the chores in between each day of shooting. We left in the morning right after I milked and we got to the range about 8:30. Mom strained the milk for me and did the milk dishes for the morning milking. Thank you everybody for keeping things running after we were gone!

One of the most important things that I learned was how to apply the bullet trajectory to long distance shooting. Every bullet drops as it goes out the barrel and it drops more as it goes to farther distances. So even if you fire a good shot, you are going to miss the target unless you adjust your sights to compensate for the bullet drop. After I understood what I was doing, it was an easy matter to figure out the drop of the bullet for my caliber.

I'll quickly explain how to chart the drop of a bullet as it leaves the barrel so you can do it on your own. Zero your rifle at 25 meters and make sure you can get all your shots in about a 1 inch square. If you try to collect information from a random group, then you will get incorrect data and plot your bullet drop wrong.

Then move out to 100 yards and fire 5 rounds from prone at the center of the target. Check your target and measure the distance that the center of the five-shot group is from the target. Write it down! But don't adjust your sights. Make sure you convert all the inch measurements into Minute Of Angle measurements before you write it down. Otherwise your numbers will confuse you like they did me. (if you don't know what a MOA is, go to an Appleseed shoot!)

Then go out to 200 yards and collect the same data as you did at a hundred yards. The groups might be high or low, depending on what type of cartridge you are firing but don't make any adjustments on your sights. At the RBC we were shooting at 20" wide silhouette targets that had a backer that was about five feet square so it caught any stray shots or groups that ended up being low or high.

Then move out to 300 and 400 and as far out as you have room to shoot. You should be able to draw out a chart like this that shows how the bullet drops. Each of the verticle dashed lines is 100, 200, 300, 400 yard marks. The little squares represent each MOA up or down that the bullet traveled at each distance. As you see, at 100 yards the bullet hit 3 MOA high, then at 200 it was 1 MOA lower than before, at 300 it was right on and 400 it was 1.5 MOA low. With those measurements I can adjust my sights from where it was sighted in at 25 yards, up 1.5 MOA and make a hit at 400 yards without firing a shot! If I didn't adjust I would hit 6 inches low with this caliber.

We were told that we need to make up a bullet drop chart for each different ammunition that we own, and for each different rifle, and store the charts with the ammo so you always know the sight adjustments for it.

I have more to tell, so stay tuned for the next post!

Peter

Rifleman Boot Camp Completed!

2010-07-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

What an exiting week! Jonathan and I were gone all day for 8 days in a row attending the Rifleman Boot Camp organized by the Appleseed project that was held in Rolla ND. We couldn't camp out there because of all the chores that need doing at home so we drove back and forth about 45 miles to the range. We started out shooting rimfire rifles at 25 meters and in two days all of the 9 shooters had scored "Rifleman" on the army qualification test at least once so we moved out to full distance. The main instructor for the boot camp wasn't able to get there until Monday night (we started Sunday morning) so the first two days were run by a different master instructor and we all learned a lot. That instructor was Don D. and he drove all the way from Kentucky to help instruct.

On Tuesday we sighted in our centerfire rifles at 25 meters (the closer set of cardboard targets in the picture above is the 25 meter line) and learned to tighten our positions and make our slings "as tight as humanly possible" to put it in The Guy's words. The Guy was the main instructor for the boot camp and kept us all learning. Nobody seems to know what his real name is because he goes by The Guy. He was kind of different, to put it nicely. He put us through a few drills like "ball and dummy" and helped me cure my flinch which started to be a problem after I used the bigger rifle for a while. Ball and Dummy is where another person (The Guy did it for me and was really good at it) helps the shooter by loading a dummy or a live round in a random pattern and watching the shooter to see that all the shots are fired "by the numbers". I was flinching for quite a few times and then he would surprise me with a live round when he thought I did everything right. My groups started out at about six MOA (inch and a half @ 25m) and after the drill, four out of five shots were in a 2 MOA group (half inch @ 25m). I even broke positions after two or three of those shots to put on a jacket and still the shots were good!

I can't remember what happened exactly on what day, but on one of the days we learned about bullet trajectory and reading the wind and the next day we went out to the full distances. Without changing our sights from the 25 meter zero, we moved to 200 yards and charted the MOA drop of the bullet there and then went out farther and so on. It confused me for the first day, so on the way home we looked closely at the targets and figured out the adjustments that I needed to make for my rear sight.

I will finish up the story sometime in another post.

Peter

Enough to do - plus more

2010-06-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Things are going pretty well here. All the trees are leafed out and the pastures are lush and the gardens are coming up quite well.

On Tuesday, all of us boys and Dad worked together and brought the chicken pens out to the big field and then brought the second batch of broilers out of the brooder to place in the pens. Jonathan already had the rest of his hens put in with the pullets that were in the netting and the new hoop tractor in the field behind the cows. We brought the bell waterers back to the house for cleaning and scrubbed them up so would be ready to put back in the pens. We put the turkeys out in a separate pen out there too so they have a clean place each day. The chickens are now on their way down the pasture section behind the cows adding their droppings and scratching out the cow pies. Earlier in the year I walked out to inspect the grass where the chickens were moved last year, and it was fun to notice the difference in the grass of where there was chicken manure and where there wasn't. About a foot from where the pen had been, the grass was thin, pale green and about four inches tall, but where the manure was dropped the grass was almost knee high and lush green with barely any space between the individual plants. Hopefully next year we will see a similar increase in fertility in the other field.

On Wednesday, Jonathan, David and I went to work for the insurance agent as we have been doing for quite a few weeks now. If we wanted to, he would hire us to work for him many days a week for $10 an hour, but we can't spare that much time away from home. He has asked us to do odd jobs around his house so we went as usual at 10:00 a.m. After the five or so inches of rain we got the water washed out some landscaping gravel beside his house and so he had a pile of 3/4 inch gravel dumped in his driveway for us to use in replacing the other rock. We used his john deere tractor with loader to move some of the rock and then put in some other six-inch rocks to direct the water down the stream bed and not into the neighbor's lawn. We ended the day by filling in some bare spots in his lawn and adding grass seed so it will grow back. (I just thought I'd add that he's really picky about his lawn, and everything else for that matter, so anywhere there was an inch or so of bare dirt showing we had to put more black dirt and scratch in grass seed. He fertilizes the lawn so it grows, then cuts it so it doesn't grow so tall, then waters it so it doesn't dry out etc. If it were me I'd just . . .)

Yesterday was a milk pick-up and delivery day. Jonathan went to town about 9:30 a.m. and dropped milk off and eggs to a few people and I got other milk ready for people to pick up later on. Someone came at 10:00 to pick up a gallon of milk and a few dozen eggs (he's a fire chief for a small town in the area), and then later on a man came from Minot to pick up five gallons for him and some other people from Minot (he's a lawyer or something of that sort) and he took a quarter cord of aspen wood along in his truck, and then another lady picked up her share of milk too.

Last night it rained again so the low spots are muddy again. They just started to dry out and now they are all muddy again. David and I got stuck with the truck trying to take a half-tank of water out to the cows so we had to dump it all out in order to get the trailer out. I did get water out there after going a little faster to make it through the wet spot.

I just came in after investigating what the dog was barking at out near the point. The other boys went out on the raft to swim and Samson followed along the shore and found something interesting to play with. I heard him barking the sort of exited bark like he does when he sees something so I ran out there. I found him in the brush rolling after getting sprayed by a skunk! He jumped up and followed after it again when I got there and chased the skunk into a den on the slope of the hill that goes to the lake. I didn't get to see the skunk but the sun was shining down the hole he went down so I could see a kind of vapor/mist coming out of the hole. Not a pleasant sight! I think it is the same skunk that I fired at while we were putting up the goat fence and the same skunk that killed the pullets so I would gladly have shot him this time if he showed himself.

The electricity was off for about a half hour around supper time but now it is on again. We're not sure why it was off but we are glad to have it on again.

That is all for this post,

Peter

Why haven't I been writing?

2010-06-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

Too busy! That's all.

Now to go do chores.

Peter

Yuck!

2010-06-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

I just had to say that about store-bought butter. It's really tastes awful now that we have been used to homemade butter! I guess it is probably the lack of taste in store-bought butter that is the issue. It just makes your bread feel like somebody spread grease on it and it is white as a sheet of paper. It makes me shudder to think of the cow(s) that it was milked from.

We had to save cream for a few people at the beginning of the month, and then we needed the milk for other local people, and then our semi-regular person from Minot let us know that he was coming so we had to send milk with him so we didn't have enough cream for butter. I guess we're caught up now, so we are making butter again.

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Today we went over to Metigoshe Ministries to help them set up quilts for an upcoming auction. There were about 150 different quilts from churches that donated them to the center for them to make money on. I heard that last year the top bid on one of the quilts was . . . take a guess . . . $34,000 dollars! That is some money for a quilt! There were all sorts of sizes and designs that we had to fold and hang on the beams in the church.

Then, since today was the only sunny break in the weather forecast we went and mowed two people's lawns. We weren't able to get them done on time earlier in the week, and tomorrow it is supposed to rain too, so we needed to get them done.

Mom just said the cows were staring at her while she was taking clothes off the line and they looked like they were begging to be let out to pasture again. I need to go do that now. . .

Peter

Cuts - Bags - Discharges - Fertilizes

2010-06-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

On the top of the circular blade protector on our self-propelled lawnmower it says "Cuts, Mulches, Bags". That may be fine for mowing someone else's lawn, but how about a lawnmower that fertilizes!

We ran the animals through the "nursery research plot" to take down the grass that was getting out of control. It would be a tough job for the weedwhipper but in one day, here's the results.

Peter

The nicest set of letters I've ever seen!

2010-05-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will send the first set of bills to cow-share owners for them to pay boarding for the third quarter. It is the only first of many invoices that will be sent, Lord willing! We have begun to use QuickBooks for our customer database and it works really well to organize accounts and invoices and much more.

Peter

Raindrops

2010-05-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Hello,

The past few days it rained and thundered off and on so there are water puddles all over the yard. We don't have a rain gauge that works but by looking at how much water is in buckets we probably got at least two inches. There was hail in some of the storms along with heavy downpours. The animals are all happy to be out now after grazing in between raindrops and the goats spent most of their day in the barn because they don't like getting wet.

We are waiting to hear from a group of people that are coming for a "field trip" to our farm from the Minot AFB but they might have to cancel their camping trip because it is too wet. They haven't informed us if they are, or aren't coming yet.

Over the past few days we had the cows fenced in over the septic drain field beside the house to eat the 10 inch grass that was growing there. It is hard for us to mow that spot because there is still humps of dirt left there from when it was installed so it's easier to set up a portable fence.

Yesterday we sold another goat to someone from the Devils Lake area that had bought two kids from us a few weeks ago. They wanted one that was milking so they bought an adult doe. This spring we sold ten of the goats that we had to people who contacted us. One of those was a 35 pound kid that went to an Italian person from Bottineau. We brought it down to the slaughter house for him to have it processed.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Mom got a really nice Champion 2000+ juicer! I think it is a more commercial version of the normal Champion juicer. It is going to really speed up the tomato and applesauce processing jobs! We made some raspberry sherbert from one of the recipes that came in the manual and it was really tasty. I can't wait to see how it works on other vegetables and fruits. We can make nut butters too with it.

Suppertime! . . .

Peter

Solution for ringworm

2010-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I just thought I'd write a quick post about the skin fungus "ringworm" that we had in the beef cow.

It showed up in circular red scabs on his neck and head just about a week ago but it has now cleared up and is healing fast. A book I would recommend for a lot of information on minerals is "Natual Cattle Care" by Pat Colby. Anyway here's the recipe we used on ringworm from that book:

1 pint apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons copper sulfate

I jut rubbed it onto the scabs with a paper towel in the morning before they went out to graze. It looked a lot better that same day but I applied it again the next morning anyway.

Ringworm will only be a problem in cows that are low in copper so we try to make sure that the free-choice mineral feeder is always available for the animals. We get copper sulfate locally in the form of root killer for septic systems at the local farm store. It is a blue crystal and can be poisinous if they eat too much of it.

Correct levels of copper, as well as other minerals, will also prevent Johne's disease and Brucellosis. Also, worms can't live in an animal that has the right amount of copper. A few years ago we had some pretty shaggy looking goats (reddish brown curled hair instead of glossy black on their sides) and offered them a nibble of copper sulfate for the first time. In two weeks their coats were all shiny and they have stayed that way most of the time since. Copper is a must!

Peter

Friday evening report

2010-05-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I would have liked if we had gotten a little more rain today. It did sprinkle for a few hours this morning but it didn't last long. The sun is out now and you can't tell it rained a bit.

Today I set up a few strands of wire in with the piglets to teach them to respect it. It's kind of fun to watch them sniff it for the first time and then get shocked. They usually learn pretty fast that it is better to stay on one side than the other. This year we bought six pigs from the neighbor north of us to raise and have deposits from customers reserving four of them. Last year we were only able to buy two from him because he had sold out on the rest. Pigs are pretty easy to grow and they are fun to watch. They stretch out in the shade and grunt happily and get to be pretty friendly after a while. Samson has been making friends with them through the fence but they are still a little shy of people. We give the pigs spare milk that has been in the refrigerator too long after we have taken the cream off and whey.

Yesterday we mowed a lady's lawn for the first time this year and got to try out the new grass trimmer which sped up the trim work. We will continue to mow once a week for her until the grass slows down in the summer. Yesterday morning when Jonathan went down to town to deliver eggs/milk he helped a relative of a neighbor move some things to the neighbor's place. He also brought back some things that they had given us. We got a bunch of garden tools, a spade (always need more of those!), two push-type seed planters, a bunch of assorted things and most interesting of all (to me) was a bunch of steel rod posts and a full shopping bag of rod post insulators! I just recently needed more of them so this was clearly God's hand moving once again. We are thankful for all the things we have gotten this spring. Almost every thing we have needed has come into our hands in one way or another, and the things we still need are sure to come as well.

Until next time,

Peter

How to set up a portable electric fence - cheap and simple. Part 2: Posts and Insulators

2010-05-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

How to set up a portable electric fence - cheap and simple. Part 2: Posts and Insulators

Posts come in different styles and sizes, but they serve the same purpose. To hold the conductor at the correct height, and insulate the conductor from the ground.

Posts

Types of posts:

Wooden

Steel

Fiberglass

Even for a portable electric fence, it is sometimes useful to put a wooden post in for a corner that needs extra support. I like to use oak saplings about 4-6 inches in diameter for these but aspen wood or other softer woods will work temporarily (they may last 3-4 years before they rot and break off). A post 5 feet long buried in the ground a foot and a half will be just right to hold the nail-in insulator about 30-36 inches off the ground, about the right height for a cow's nose.

A steel post is quicker to install than a wooden one but will need an anchor steak to brace against the tension of the wire if it is too much for it. Two types I use are T posts and 3/8 re-bar cut four feet long. The T post works good for a slight curve in the fence line, if it isn't too sharp of a bend, or for a corner if it is braced. The re-bar works best for supporting the conductor between T posts. Use rod post insulators for the re-bar and T post insulators for the T posts.

I don't have much experience with fiberglass posts, but I have read that they tend to break off when the weather is cold and definitely aren't as stiff as metal ones.

Insulators

For the portable reel-based electric fence I'm describing, the only posts and insulators I use are the re-bar posts with their screw-on insulators. Of the different brands of insulators that I have tried out, I like the Red Snapp'r (Zareba) for their easy on and off design, but I like the latest ones from Premier for their ability to screw on tightest. Red Snapp'r insulators are guaranteed not to break, but I've seen them bend pretty far out of shape. Dare insulators are more solid feeling than Red Snapp'r, but they are harder to get on and off. I have never had an insulator break. Round corner insulators need a loop of stiff wire to attach them to the post and so far I like the Red Snapp'r brand because of the groove in the center that keeps the wire from slipping sideways. Sometime I would like to try the type of corner insulator that you don't have to thread the conductor through before attaching to the post. That would speed up the corners and work well for the portable set-up.

When a re-bar post has too much tension sideways (like at a corner - see picture above), I use a loop of twine and a small stake for support. A short piece of cattle panel bent over at the top or a pole barn spike bent over works for this.

To carry all my fence making supplies and the posts I use an old golf club bag slung across one shoulder and that helps me a lot. In the pocket in the side I keep extra support stakes and the voltage tester and more twine and assorted insulators. It speeds up setting out fence lines because I can take and replace a post from the bag with one hand while holding the reel of wire in the other.

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The picture is of a corner of the fence where the cows would come to get water on their way down the hill to the barn. The animals always have a path open for them to go back to the barn if they want to or if I need to herd them back before I milk. You can see that the grass on the left side of the picture hasn't been disturbed and is growing back after being grazed only once. There is a wire dividing that part off until it is ready to graze again.

Peter

Garden update - Floating row covers

2010-05-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so nice for the past few days so I've been out of the house most of the time so it is nice to take the time now to write a blog post.

This afternoon Dad and I planted eight more rows of corn in addition to the seven or eight that are already planted. We are trying out a new thing this year with floating row covers. It works like a green house but it is not plastic and you just lay it out over the plants and loosen it up as the plants grow. The material is kind of like thinly woven cloth so water can go right through it but it still helps warm the ground beneath (the main reason it was hard for us to use plastic row-covers is because we didn't have any way to water it without taking all the plastic off).

This is some corn that was planted in the hoop house. It is already about three inches tall. We planted it April 20th and used the row cover on that also. The weeds grow nicer under the cover too!

Here's some peas that I planted not too long after the snow melted.

We have been receiving quite a few phone calls about an ad that we put in the Bottineau paper advertising raspberry and strawberry plants for sale and listing a few other products as well. Today the owner of a bar in town called and wants to buy some of everything we have for his family and pay to have us deliver it to the bar for him. He will be sending us an order for it sometime soon so hopefully he will be a regular customer. Jonathan delivered eggs to some people and milk to a few cow-share owners in town this morning.

Always something going on!

Peter

How to set up a portable electric fence - cheap and simple. Part 1: making a reel

2010-05-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

How to set up a portable electric fence - cheap and simple. Part 1: making a reel

This system works best for a single strand cow fence, but it also works well for goats if you use two or three strands.

You will need:

Spool(s) with wire
Posts and insulators
Small anchor stakes with twine
Live trunk line as a power source

Making a reel for wire

Some places sell a nice reel for rolling up wire but they cost about $20 so I made my own.

Parts list
2 - 12 x 12 inch 3/8 plywood circles
4 - 2x2s 4 inches long
1 - 3/4 inch plastic pipe 8-10 inches long PVC might work or black poly pipe but I used some PEX floor heat tubing and it worked perfect.

1 - 3/4 inch plastic pipe 1 inch long

1 - heavy gauge wire 8 inches long
handfull of screws and a 1 1/2 " pan head wood screw with a washer

Directions for assembling your spool

Cut out the two circles of plywood 10-12 inches in diameter and the four 2x2s. Set the two plywoods together and drill 1/4 inch holes spaced about 3 inches apart and 3/4 of an inch from the edge all the way around the spool (make a mark across the edges of the wood so that you
can align the two in the same position later on).

Drill a hole through both pieces in the center, just large enough for the plastic pipe to fit snugly (really tight is best). Next, sandwich the 2x2s on end between the plywoods so that they are all 2 inches from the outer edge. Use wood screws for these joints and add a little glue if you have some.

Insert the plastic pipe through the hole in the center until one inch of it sticks out the other side. Opposite the side with the most pipe sticking out, screw the pan head screw with the washer through the 1 inch section of pipe into the spool side, about 2 inches from the edge, and tighten into the spool. This serves as a handle to assist in rolling up the wire. Now you can wind up as much wire as you want onto the spool. To keep the wire from unrolling, take the heavy gauge wire (a section of cattle panel bent over at the top is what works the best for me) and insert it through the holes in the plywood. Put an insulated handle on the end of the wire and your spool's done!

To put handles on a plastic spool, I use carriage bolts with nuts and washers. Drill the holes in a corner of the ribs so that the head of the bolt and the washer will catch the rim of the plastic and not slip off when tightened.

Any questions? Another post will describe the use of this spool.

Peter

Always Improving

2010-05-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was mostly overcast and it rained off and on all day. Dad cut up some bridge planks for me and we put them in the barn to keep the milking area cleaner. I used to have straw on the floor, but that could easily get in the milk so wood is better.

This afternoon I cleaned out the 450 gallon water tank and put it on the trailer for use in watering the animals. We use the tank to haul water to fill up barrels near the chickens or for the cows when they are on pasture. I cut another plastic barrel in half with the saws-all and brought them out to the paddocks and filled them up so now everything is set for my rotational grazing set-up.

Tomorrow will be a busy day but maybe Thursday afternoon I will try to put both the cows out on grass. They will be able to walk down the hill to the barn when it's time to milk.

Our transplants are doing really well. This year we used all our own mix of potting soil and fertilized the seedlings with manure tea. They have all done really well, except some of the cayenne peppers didn't come up at all.

I was looking at a website this morning http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/ and thought it was easy to follow in understanding more about why raw milk is so much better for you than 'cooked' milk. We are going to have to try making kefir with some!

Peter

Busy springtime

2010-04-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I finally got a chance to blog now that it just rained a little bit. This afternoon we were out cleaning up a yard for someone on the Lake. We have been working on things here at the farm as much as possible while at the same time helping to rake lawns, wash decks, clean gutters etc. There is lots going on this time of year.

A few days ago I wrote a long blog post about what I had been up to, but then blogger lost it and now I can't remember what all I wrote about (I lost it all when I clicked "Publish"!).

This morning Jonathan went to the post office and picked up a few hundred broiler chicks. He has them all doing well in the brooder now. He hasn't lost any of the ones purchased so far and hopefully he will not lose any. There is also another 75 layer chicks in a separate brooder too that are doing well.

On a different topic, we bought a brush cutter/grass trimmer from a neighbor yesterday. We had prayed a few days ago that we would be able to find a good deal on a professional size weed eater and a few days later noticed an ad in the paper advertising one! We got a good deal on it and it is in good condition even though it is 11 years old. It had only been used five times and it works like new right now. Mom also got a $200 pasta machine for $25 at the neighbors too. We tried out the brush cutter this afternoon while working on the goat fence out in the field. It works real slick!

More coming later...

Peter

Appleseed weekend

2010-04-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

This last weekend went well here with the appleseed shoot. We had someone that had attended the Appleseed here last August bring a troop of boy scouts up to participate. We were kind of wondering how easy they would be to teach (most of them were probably 10-12 yrs old) and how well they would pay attention, but it worked out real well. There was another friend and his son that came at noon but had to leave about 4:00 so they didn't catch all that went on. Another homeschool dad and his three sons from Stanley came and stayed for the whole day and ate supper with us before heading home. There were a few people signed up to shoot on Sunday, but no one showed up! The instructors (Jonathan, Chris, and I along with the shoot boss Alex) did some shooting on our own and I tried out a rifle with aperture sights and scored 223 points. I don't think I could have done that well with the cheap factory open sights on my 22.

On Thursday the 15th, Dad and I went down south to Napoleon ND to meet with a legislator there about the upcoming bill to eliminate all regulation of homeschooling in ND. We met in the back room of the Napoleon auction barn for the meeting. Mr. B was there with us and after the meeting, we watched the auction for a bit. That was the first livestock auction that I've ever watched so it was fun to see how it works. Mr. B explained the process so we could follow along.

We had a delicious lunch at the Bs before the meeting! Thank you Mrs. B! Before heading home we loaded up a steer we bought from them and started back. We got back home late so Jonathan had to milk for me again.

The next morning we let the cow out from the trailer and into the fenced spot near the barn to keep it until the grass gets longer. It seemed to us that the pen would hold most any animal, at least if they were as easy to keep in as the milk cow, but we found out differently a few hours later. It doesn't take much for a 600 lb calf to walk over a CATTLE panel supported only by T posts every 6 feet.

I was going to go check on him about an hour after we left him in the pen and saw that he was out in the 4 strand electric goat fence beside there. I guess he wasn't used to electric fences and walked out through the wires like it was nothing. Jonathan circled around to try to chase him back towards the barnyard, and I headed through the bushes to the pond, trying to cut him off. When I had made my way along the bank beside the pond I spotted the cow ahead about 100 yards. I didn't want to chase him faster by continuing behind him so I cut out to the "big field" and Jonathan and I started down the four wheeler trail that connects the neighbors and our properties. We didn't catch any sight of him there, so Jonathan went to get the car and went to 19th to see if he could see where the cow might cross the road. I followed the edge of the pond for a ways and then came across a spillway between the two lakes where the tracks of the cow were plain enough heading southeast towards the road. I followed for a bit and then lost the trail and didn't find it again so I went out to the road where Jonathan had the truck and trailer.

I hopped on the hood and we rode down the road until we saw the tracks of the cow crossing the road about a 1/4 mile from 43. We went up to the pavement to turn around and spotted the cow trotting east, down 43 about 300 yards away. We drove up beside him and he turned into the yard of a house there and then we chased him back the way he had come. Dad was out in the car and Andrew and David were with him.

We lost the cow into the trees on the side of the road on the way back up 19th but somehow he managed to be in the yard when Dad and I drove in. He dove into the bushes again and Dad followed him while I went to get Andrew to bring the truck and trailer and to get the rope. When I got back I found where Dad had been following him, and helped herd him towards the barn again. The cow crossed the "beaver inlet" and I tried to get across as well by balancing on some fallen logs and stumps. I made my way about half way across but then came to a dead end (no more trees to walk on) so I had to jump in the water that was about three feet deep. I waded across and then stomped up the steep hill on the other side with my boots full of water. After making my way to the "clump of trees overlooking the valley" my boot snagged on some barbed wire so I had to go back and put it on again. I was pretty tired of running now but the cow looked as if it might take off again and I needed to be in front of him. He then turned and broke through the electric fence near the barn and seemed to be pretty happy there. He then went out again and around the other side of the barn where he walked into the barn through the door. We trapped him in there and put him back in the trailer until we could set up a better pen for him. Now he's happily chewing his cud in a pen on the SW side of the barn. I guess his name is Jefferson Davis, or Jeff or Jeffery.

We plan to show him how an electric fence is supposed to work before sending him out to pasture! He has settled down now and we are glad to have a beef to raise.

Peter

An inexpensive wire strainer

2010-04-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hi,

If you have ever put up electric fences before, you probably see how helpful it is to use a wire tightener. A loose fence doesn't look too nice. I used the store bought ratchet strainers but when you need to tighten four or more strands it gets expensive. They cost $5 each at Nodak. I came up with one now that seems to work fine and only cost me about fifty cents.

The sides are oak so they should last a while. If not, I can aways paint them before installing them on the wire.

We are pretty much all set with the range for this weekend. We piled a few logs behind the targets where we saw the bullets hitting, so I think that will solve the ricochet problem. It looks like it will be a more fun Appleseed shoot than usual. There will be a few memorial volleys fired at 3:00 on one of the days in honor of the men that died in the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19 1775. With over 100 Appleseed's going on across the country, and all firing their volleys at 3:00, I'm sure there will be thousands of rifle shots ringing out at one time! I think the shoot boss will also be handing out a few new fliers and people will do a few Red AQTs with a different course of fire. I'm looking forward to it. I have memorized the "1st Strike" and am supposed to tell that on Saturday if is all goes like usual. The 1st strike is as much as I can remember of the events leading up to the first musket shots fired on the Lexington Green, including Paul Revere's ride and a bunch more.

We will see if anyone brings their centerfire rifle to shoot this weekend. That is why there is more logs on this end for the higher powered bullets to get stuck in (hopefully!). This morning Jonathan was on 101.9, our local radio station, advertising the Appleseed shoot this weekend. We listened at home and it sounded really good! He was on the air for 5 minutes.

Peter

There's more to say but...

2010-04-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

This past few weeks and the next upcoming weeks are going to be very busy so that is why I have not written sooner.

A quick review of some things that have been done, and then some of the things that are going to be done (Lord willing!).

Mom, Jonathan and David went all the way to Minnesota to visit my Grandparents and spent a few days there. Dad and Andrew and I were home to keep up on the farm things here. They had a good time there, and we had a nice time here. Planted a few rows of peas almost a week ago now, so I hope the frost stays away after they pop up. We are glad to have everyone back now!

The hoop house is up and as soon as Jonathan finishes slapping a few barrel stove parts onto a new barrel (to keep the chill off at night) we will plant a few seeds in the ground there. The bay in front of the house has thawed so it won't be long until we can put the pump out again.

We now have a bit of gravel on the driveway so the sleet we got this morning won't mess it all up. I think it's supposed to rain a bit more tomorrow so hopefully the grass to come up quickly. We're getting low on hay!

This morning Jonathan and I worked together on some Appleseed training techniques. We will be instructing at an Appleseed shoot here at our farm on the 17 and 18th of this month. If you can come you had better sign up! I practiced a few days ago at an AQT (army qualification test) and scored Rifleman again, so I feel like I am able to help other people learn as well.

We have gotten a few more calls from people asking us for help this summer with yard clean-up so that will be another thing to keep us busy this year.

I'll have to stop here now to eat supper, so that's all for now.

Peter

- Diamond cutting -

2010-04-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

The trees are stirring in the afternoon breeze and the smell of spring is in the air. A chickadee flutters down and perches on the limb of a nearby chokecherry bush, singing it's happy tune as it watches me take another step forward through the slight crust of snow under my foot. Ahead, there lies a white, snow covered clearing, stretching out to the meadow beyond.

My eyes scan the scraggly clump of willow in front of me . . . searching. A hidden treasure rests just ahead of where I stand. A treasure that most would never think of as they passed by. Another step brings me closer to the darkened, weathered, moss covered, stand of willow bushes. The ground beneath has just barely been uncovered revealing last year's fallen leaves.

Making my way through the tangle of fallen limbs and sticks, I glanced down and saw murky water swelling up in the tracks my feet had made. I was in a slight depression in the ground, barely two feet at it deepest from the surrounding forest floor, that had accumulated an amount of snow. My boots were nearly sunken in to their top, and my left foot began to feel wet as the water made it's way through a crack in the rubber.

The wind swayed the trees that hung out over the clearing and I began to redouble my efforts of finding the treasure, fearing that I may have begun in the wrong place. There! Just a few yards to my left, I spotted it. Suspended by its long shaft that merged into the main trunk, was a curiously shaped bulge in the wood surrounded by numerous other "diamonds."

---------------------------------------------------------------

In numerous places on our property we have diamond willow bushes growing. Most of the bushes were flooded when the beavers dammed up the lake overflow, so many of them are dead and dried out. There are still some that are living in the wet spots and a few afternoons ago I went out and cut a few particularly nice shaped ones. Before the bark is peeled away, the stick doesn't look that nice, but in some places the wood is full of twists and hollow spots that are referred to as "diamonds."

A lot of people like to make canes or walking sticks out of diamond willow because of the unique red color of the wood and diamonds. When the sticks dry, the wood turns red, but if it is cut green and peeled, the wood is white and the diamonds are red making a really nice looking cane or walking stick.

This afternoon I boxed up some sticks with the bark on and will be shipping them out to Idaho soon for someone that ordered them.

Peter

Siding a bit

2010-03-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

Today it warmed up real nice and was sunny. In some places it felt too hot to even be wearing a sweatshirt but I'm sure it didn't get above 60. Andrew got sunburned on the neck!

Dad went to town for a few things this morning (about 11:30) so I rode along with to get dropped off at the church to vacuum. I got back around 2:30 and had a few slices of mom's fresh baked bread. It was worth waiting to eat lunch just for that!

Andrew and David stained siding all morning and most of the afternoon so they came in streaked with cedar colored pants and shirts. When I asked if those were their painting clothes they said, "They are now!"

This afternoon I finished a mineral feeder that can sit outside and be moved around to different pastures without letting the minerals get wet in the weather. It's not as nice as a molded plastic one that rotates in the wind, but at least it didn't cost me anything.
Sandy used the shingles as sandpaper to scratch her itchy neck.

Jonathan transplanted some of the seedling tomatoes into six-packs this afternoon so they have more room to grow.

In the picture above, Dad and David are standing in front of some newly placed siding boards munching on string cheese as a snack.

NEWS: We now have a regular pick-up schedule for customers in the Minot area. They will take turns coming to the farm to pick up milk for the rest of the group.

Let's see. There are 36,567 people in Minot, each of them probably could drink a half gallon a week, so 18,283.5 gallons of milk per week, so all I need to do is get about 610 more cows milking and I'd have the whole city supplied with fresh milk . . . . . maybe in a few years.

Peter

A Favorite Tune

2010-03-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a short clip of my favorite tune. Playing music is like most anything else, you get tired of the same thing over and over again so this won't be my favorite forever.

It is nice that there is no end to the combinations of chords and melodies so you can't get tired of playing if you keep learning new songs!

The instrumental is called "Indigo Blue." I learned it from a CD recording by Tim Stafford.

In case you're wondering this is an example of flatpicking!

Peter

My Mozzarella Recipe - works every time!

2010-03-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Peter's Mozzarella Cheese

Two gallons whole milk (more cream makes the cheese whiter and more moist)

3 Tsp. citric acid (dissolved in 1 cup water)

3/16 Tsp. Lipase powder (dissolved in 1/4 cup water and let sit for at least 10 min.)

23 drops vegetable rennet (dissolved in 1/4 cup water)

1 1/2 - 2 Tsp. salt (cheese salt is preferred but kosher salt or sea salt works too)

1. Measure out 3/16 tsp. lipase powder and stir into 1/4 cup water (there is no 3/16 measure, but a heaping 1/8 or a little less than a 1/4 is close). Do this first so it can sit while the milk is warming.

2. If using cold milk, warm with low heat on stove. When temperature of milk is 55 degrees F, stir in dissolved citric acid and dissolved lipase.

3. Turn heat to medium or a bit higher. Add diluted rennet when milk reaches 90 degrees. Stir just enough to mix rennet into milk. Let sit without stirring until temperature reads 100-105 in center of curds. Thermometer may not read correct temperature when placed near edge of pot.

4. When curds are hot enough (100-105) take pot off stove and let sit until curds begin to pull away from sides of pot and whey is clear.

5. Gently scoop curds out of whey with a ladle and/or slotted spoon into colander. Do not dump as this will damage the curds and make the cheese tougher. Save the whey by setting a large bowl underneath the colander.

6. Remove whey from curds with your hand by pressing and folding. If you intend to to another batch, wash the dishes and start it now. You can leave the lump of cheese in a bowl out of the way until both are ready to dunk.

7. To dunk, take reserved whey and put back into large pot. Heat on high to 180 degrees stirring frequently to avoid burning the bottom.

8. When whey is 180 degrees, set cheese lump into hot whey and leave for 1 minute. Take out of whey and turn inside out with your hands.

9. Set in whey for 35 seconds. Take out and turn inside out, kneading the cheese to get the hot outside turned inside out to allow the uniform heat throughout the cheese. Set the cheese in again for 35 seconds (this time it will be very hot so expect your hands to get red!).

10. As the cheese is soft and workable, add the salt and knead into cheese evenly. A final 10 second dip will smoothen out the cheese so you can form it into a ball and package or you can eat it while warm. Wrap cheese in wax paper and set in refrigerator until cool, but not too long or the wax paper will stick to the cheese. After wax paper is removed, place in plastic bag to keep fresh.

Enjoy!

Swiss Milking Stool

2010-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Here's something I put together out in the shop. It just happens to work very well!

I turned the leg on the lathe and carved the top out slightly to make the seat a bit more comfortable. The leg is secured in place by a mortise and tenon joint with a wedge glued in.

The stool is strapped on, as you see above, so it moves with you. No more fumbling around to scoot the 5 gallon pail closer when the cow steps back.

Peter

P.S. Next post: my mozzarella recipe

Back to Normal - after a busy week

2010-03-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

I would have blogged more this past few days except the camera was a few hundred miles away.
Well, we've had an interesting series of events that happened recently. I will try to fill you in on all that happened.

First of all, we were asked to play a few songs for the regional Marketplace for Kids event down in Bottineau last Tuesday. We chose a few gospel and a few instrumental songs songs to play there and practiced up for that. We were also asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner as the flags were presented in the morning.

It was a blessing for us to be able to pass the gospel message to more than 250 school children by singing songs like Dust on the Bible and I'll Put on a Crown and a few others. You could tell by the faces of some of the teachers there that they weren't too impressed by the topic.

We stayed there for a little while and then Dad, Mom, Andrew and David hopped into the previously packed car and headed off to Fargo for the homeschool convention. Jonathan and I took the truck home from there with the instruments and sound system.

I'll have to say, being home for a while without the rest of the family is not as much fun as it sounded like at first. Jonathan and I would have liked to go to the convention too, but there is so much to keep up on here that there was no way that we could find someone else to do it all.

I don't know a whole lot of what went on in Fargo as I wasn't there, but from what I heard from them when they got back (last night), it was a good convention. Kevin Swanson was the keynote speaker and along with other workshop speakers Buddy Davis was there. Yesterday morning they and our friends the Kenneys had a brunch with Buddy Davis and his wife. Dad had fun talking to him. He has done some exiting things such as participating in exploration trips in search of Noah's ark, digging up dinosaur bones, creating life-size model dinosaurs, working for Answers in Genesis, and lots more. He did some workshops on how he puts together a realistic dinosaur model that Andrew and David went to.

Andrew and David are busy reading some books they bought at the convention. I think they are all tired from the week. Dad and Mom visited with Mr. Swanson for a while also and heard some good things from him. We listen to his radio program quite frequently.

Another interesting thing that happened, was Dad flew to Washington D.C. for a Homeschool Legal Defence Association meeting that he attended. HSLDA payed for the flight and other expenses to get people from all over the country to learn from speakers there about the bills introduced in congress affecting homeschooling. All of the bills are, in some way or another, taking away the right for people to teach their children at home.

While there, Dad went to the capitol and sat in on some discussion in the House chamber about the "health care" bill and got to meet with some of the congressman's staff members about homeschooling. He also talked to Senator Dorgan (Senator from ND) briefly somewhere in the capitol. Dad took a few pictures but they haven't been developed yet. One was of the Supreme Court building as they drove by. He also saw the White House from a distance.

While Dad was out of town, Mom and the boys visited someone that used to be our neighbor

when we lived in Fargo. She is 103 years old! She even remembered David and Andrew's names after not seeing them for three years.

They also showed her our website and the pictures and she was really interested in all that was on there. Imagine what it was like 103 years ago! I think a lot has changed in her life time.

______________________________________________

That was all the interesting things that didn't happen here. Jonathan and I didn't get much time to do a lot of fun things (like playing music) while we were home. We had to keep up with all the little kids in the barn that needed tending to and just chores alone took all morning it seemed like. I spent a lot of time figuring out the mozzarella cheese and now I think I've got it down pretty well. We had been using milk that didn't have much cream on it for the cheese but now I know that it needs cream to be more moist. I wrote out the recipe that works for me for a reference. I quit using the microwave (thanks to Heather's note!) and got it to work just fine.

Mom made a whole bunch of food and muffins for us before she left so we were well fed. We did make pizza and bread sticks one evening and put more cheese than crust on the pizza. Delicious!

If you didn't read Jonathan's blog post about the coyote you had better check it out! If you're not tired of reading already.

There's another thing I'll be posting about soon - when I get around to taking a picture of it.

That's all for now.

Peter

All done kidding

2010-03-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

This afternoon the last goat had two kids. We now have a herd of 22 goats, including the little guys. We had eight does that kidded within the last week and a half or so. None of them had triplets but a few of them only had one kid. We are a little disappointed in the male/female ratio. Nine bucks and three does. I guess there's some more chevon for the freezer!

We have not had any birthing problems (at least with does that are more than a year old) so we usually don't get up to check for kids in the night. At least not when it is this warm out! I think our mineral lick has also been helpful in preventing problems with birthing or worms. We use a recipe containing: Thorvin kelp, Redmond salt, diatomaceous earth, and copper sulfate, besides offering a sulfur lick on the side and adding Shaklee basic H in the water monthly just in case.

We finally took John (the buck) out of the main pen and stuck him all by his self on the other side of the fence. He was "blocking" the door into the barn so the cow couldn't get in to be milked.

I guess it's time to eat supper and then go milk. When that's over with I've got to finish making butter.

Peter

P.S. I made mozzarella again today with four gallons of milk and this time added lipase. It definitely made the cheese softer.

How many goats do you have? Ummm ahhhh hmmmmmm. . . I'll have to go check!

2010-03-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a few of the goats kidded. The mothers were twins that were two years old. One of them had twins and the other had a single kid. One of the kids is not doing real well but is still alive so we have it in the house.

This morning when I went down to milk, I found the mother of the two previous mothers licking off her two kids that were born a few hours before. Those two are up and doing really well now. Just before lunch Jonathan went down to check on the goats and found another set of twins had been born by a different goat. I guess they all went into heat about the same time last fall. There is still four more goats that are expected to kid soon.

I haven't blogged for a while since I've been working on a handout for our cow-shares. If you want to see it, here is a link to the pdf: http://bartlettfarm.us/documents/whataboutcowsharesfinal.pdf

Let me know what you think of it, please!

Peter

I'm a Cheesemaker!

2010-03-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

A few days ago Mom showed me how she makes mozzarella cheese. Yesterday she and I used up six gallons of milk in an afternoon making it. We started doing two gallons at a time (instead of one like the recipe calls for) in a bigger pot to save time and it seems to work just as well that way, not saying that it works well every time though. Now I'm looking forward to making other types of cheeses!

We do most of the heat treating in the microwave because it is faster and less messy but I did one double batch with the method of dipping it in the whey. The cheese turned out just as well for me that way as with the microwave but it took more time.

After I had done a few batches, Mom did one that turned out perfect! Really tasty. We've been keeping a record of how each batch turns out and what we did different so we can look back. There is still so many variables that it is hard to say what made the difference for sure, but Mom used less citric acid and one drop less rennet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A neighbor stopped by this afternoon and talked with us for a while. He likes to talk, but he did have something interesting to show us.

He works out in the oil fields in western ND and had brought back a little bottle of oil straight from the ground. It was runny, not thick at all or lumpy, and he said it stays runny even at negative 30 degrees.

He said it takes a month and three million dollars to drill an oil well but after that the money just rolls in. Somebody he met was making $1200 dollars a day from just letting an oil company put three rigs on their land and pumping. He also said that there is so much pressure in the ground they don't really do any pumping it just sprays out of the pipe system into their tanks.

The sample he had brought, he said would run in some tractors straight without any treatment needed. That would be nice! North Dakota doesn't really refine much oil so we don't get any lower gas prices by all the pumping.

Time to go get ready to milk,

Peter

You drink RAW MILK!

2010-03-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

Peter

Fun Projects for a Saturday

2010-03-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

I just came over here from starting the wood stove so I am still keeping an eye on it as I write. The air pressure is low so there is not a very good draft.

Today it was really nice out. A good day to get a bunch done outside and upstairs. Dad and David taped some sheetrock on the upstairs kitchen wall this morning and in the afternoon Dad installed a second window in the kitchen. I did a bit more sanding on another cabinet and stained the base of one of the wall cabinets. Jonathan was in the shop for part of the day re-wiring an old chick brooder hood.

Of course David had to get us all to have a snowball fight. The snow was just right for snowballs, and along with the warmth, the driveway got a little slick. Paulette and another friend came over this afternoon but had to try three times to get up the muddy hill at the base of our driveway. Hopefully we will be able to get the road shaped and graded this spring, soon! We are going to have it run up on the crest of the hill instead of where it is now so that it is a little bit more level.

I guess it will be time to start some seeds pretty soon. I think we know pretty much how much of everything we are going to need so it won't be too hard to plant it all. Some of it will need to be started later on so it doesn't get too big before the hoop house is warmed up.

Peter

Busy Evening

2010-03-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

I guess it is time for another post.

Yesterday evening got to be a little busy over here. I had one cow-share customer scheduled to pick up some milk and cream later in the day so I went over to vacuum at Metigoshe Ministries after lunch. When I got back, I went upstairs and varnished the first coat of lacquer on a cabinet and got the milk and cream ready for the person coming. It ended up being about 6:00 before she arrived but I gave her the milk and she left.

A little later, Jonathan came out to the building where I was working and told me that we had gotten a call from someone from Minot saying he was going to come later on and pick up his milk and eggs. The man said he said he would try to get here about eight p.m. We got a few gallons ready for him to pick up and put them in the refrigerator upstairs.

Then, we got a call from someone that was on the road a few miles away saying that he was coming to pick up 4 quarts of cream for a friend of his. Thankfully we had all the cream ready and he picked it up and left. It was just about time to milk, so I had Jonathan get the milking stuff ready to go for me while I was out giving the man his cream.

Later on the other guy came and picked up milk and eggs and then left.

I sure am glad that we had enough milk and cream on hand to supply everybody!

Peter

How to keep a cat from thinking out-of-the-box

2010-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hello,

A few nights ago I woke up to the sound of little kittens crying for their mamma. Our house cat, "Funny Face" had a litter of five kittens a few days before but we had kept her and her kittens in a cardboard box in the bathroom. She had quietly carried them one at a time under my bed a few days before. They hadn't made any noise for the first few nights so we left them where they were. When they started making noise, we decided we should take them back to their box in the bathroom.

The cat didn't like the idea very well and every time we would put them in the box she would drag them back under the bed. We tried stacking different things in the path where she would have to go to get to her spot but she found other ways in--squeeze in between the potato sacks and boxes.

Andrew finally came up with the cure. He set a battery powered radio tuned to static near where her nest was. She decided it wasn't very pleasant any more and has stayed in the box ever since.

Peter

Oh wring

2010-02-27T15:06:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Yesterday we finally got a few O rings in the mail for the cream separator. We tried looking in Minot for someone that had the right size but each place we looked at said to try a different store and we didn't find any the right size. Dad found one online at: http://www.superiorseals.com/. We had to have an order of more than five dollars so we ordered a few of each in different materials.

This morning I tried fitting them where they would go on the cream separator and one of the sizes fits perfectly. We had gotten two of that type so now we have a spare. If you have a old DeLaval cream separator that needs a new seal for the cone shaped spinner, get this one: Buna-N 427 Size O-ring, product no: ob-70-427 from that website. It may not be a food-grade rubber material, but we will use it until we find a better one.

We got two different sizes and three different materials. The set on the right was the size that fit best.

I poured water through to test if it leaked. Thankfully it didn't! When we have a few more gallons of milk to skim we'll try running it through and see how it works for real.

Peter

Fixing up cabinets

2010-02-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Hello!

This afternoon I went upstairs to glue in one of the side panels of a cabinet that I've been fixing up. We were given a set of oak-faced cabinets from some friends that live down near Bismarck a few years ago but until now they hadn't been fixed up or arranged to fit where we would like them. The carpenter that built them built them in place and glued them to the wall so there was a little bit of damage that happened when they were pried off the walls. We just need to replace a few broken boards and add a few sides to some of the cabinets and they turn out really nice!

We found a way to position the counters and cabinets so that we don't have to do much cutting of the sections and it works out pretty nice. There is also a nice sink that will go under the window in the kitchen, and a dish washer spot is already there so we can install the dishwasher that came with everything. I think that will be nice. It has been so long since we lived in town and had a dishwasher that I don't think I remember how to use one!

Jonathan has worked on a separate counter/cabinet and had to add two sides so he has practice with staining and varnishing. I'll have to ask him for help to show me how to finish the end wall on the cabinet I'm working on. The one I was working on is the side that is being clamped in the picture below. While we were working on the cabinets, Dad was working on sheet rocking the kitchen wall. We haven't tried our hand at mudding and taping sheet rock yet, but we are just about ready to start.

This afternoon a homeschool family stopped by to look at what goats we have for sale. They just wanted to see what we have before they decide if they want to buy any from us.

Goodnight,

Peter

Quick post

2010-02-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

This will be pretty short. I'm supposed to go get into bed right now...

On Saturday we played a 45 minute music program in Westhope at the nursing home there. It is a little less than a hour drive to get there from here. We are going to try to record a few of the songs from our program before we get out of practice again. It takes quite a while of practice before you can feel like you are reasonably good at a certain song. We still are a long way from sounding anything like the bands that we enjoy listening to!

I have been figuring out what we will need to do to fence some pasture for the animals in the spring. We will probably start with a 10 acre electric fence beside the driveway. We are going to fence a few large paddocks that are partly in the woods for pasturing the pigs next year too.

Eventually I would like to expand our cattle herd and implement the rotational grazing ideas that Joel Salatin talks about that would make our land so much more productive!

Continued another time.

Peter

Guess what came in the mail today...

2010-02-18T15:45:00.000-08:00

...our business cards! I think they turned out really nice. We came up with a few different versions of cards (Dad made one, Andrew made one and I made one) and then I combined a little of all three and came up with this one. We edited it and it looks real nice. We also ordered two small stainless steel carriers to keep them in so they don't get bent in your pocket. A bent business card is not very impressive.

Now I feel like giving one to everyone we see!

Peter

To Lansford!

2010-02-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

We just got back a little bit ago from the annual Republican dinner held in Lansford ND. We played a few songs for entertainment during the meal at noon. We had to all pack into the car and fit all the instruments and the sound system into the trunk and cargo carrier. We can fit the two speakers and two microphone stands on the the top of the car but we have to cram the 3/4 size bass and the other instruments in the trunk and the sound board with all the wires.

Andrew and I played chess on the way over but had to start over a few times when we hit a bump and the pieces fell off the board!

Lansford is a pretty small town with not too many stores on main street.

We were going to play for a certain amount of time but the panel discussion lasted longer than expected so we played during the meal. Nobody seemed to pay much attention but we played anyway.

We had the usual meal: meat, potatoes, corn and gravy. Whenever there is a meal offered somewhere, it is usually that same combination!

Governor Hoeven came for part of the meeting today and stayed for a while.

Just as we were ready to hop into the car to leave, I slammed the trunk door and felt my thumb pop. I guess I sprained it again! This is the fourth time this year. Jonathan put a comfrey/slippery elm poultice on it and I have that on my hand right now. Dad read out of one book we have that if you press on the most painful spot until you can't stand it any longer and hold onto it for a minute, then let off, you will feel less pain. I tried it, but you only feel less pain afterward because you quit pressing on it!

Butter...

2010-02-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

I just thought I'd say I made butter this morning and timed the churn to see how long it took. We got two and a quarter pounds of butter in 4 minutes and 45 seconds out of a gallon of cream. I think that is pretty fast but I'm not sure.

I don't think we are getting the water/buttermilk out of the butter very thoroughly. Does anyone have any hints? We have a butter paddle and a book that talks about pressing and folding but I'd like to have someone else show me how to do it right.

The kid is doing pretty good now. It is getting a little more playful and independent.

Peter

Adventures in the Turtle Mountains

2010-02-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

It all started a couple days ago when we heard that we were going to get a change in weather. I needed to go vacuum on Monday (today) and there were some people coming to have a tour of our place in the afternoon Monday, so I decided that it would be better to get it over with as soon as possible. I don't usually go to vacuum on Sunday, but I think that God arranged everything to work out really well!

Yesterday morning I was not feeling like going over to work, but after thinking about it I figured that I'd just get it done so I wouldn't have to worry about getting snowed in. I am not licensed to drive alone yet so Jonathan rode with me in the truck. We thought we'd take the truck so we would be sure not to get stuck but I have only driven the truck on the road once before, even though I have had plenty of practice and can manage the gears pretty well. The truck tends to take a long time to warm up (choke needs adjusting) and so when we got to the mailbox it stalled and wouldn't start up again. Jonathan got out and propped the choke open with his Gerber and I started the truck again. We drove for a little ways further and then the truck died again. Jonathan got out and held the choke open again and we continued on. It didn't quit again until we got to the church. I told Jonathan I could call home and tell Mom he was on his way back and to check on him if he wasn't back soon. I have a routine that I follow each time and is doesn't include any phone calls until I'm all done, so by the time I walked inside and punched in my time card I forgot about calling!

Well, that was all I knew until I had finished vacuuming and washed the kitchen floor and called home for someone to come pick me up. Mom answered the phone and said, "They had to go pull him out again." "Who?" I asked. "Oh, you didn't hear about it I suppose. Dad and Andrew and David had to go help Jonathan pull a guy out of the ditch. Can you just hang on for a bit?" I said I could wait and then finished cleaning up. It took a while and then Dad came driving up in the car to pick me up. He said that I missed out on the adventure!

I wasn't there to see how it all happened but from what I gathered, Jonathan was on his way home (the truck didn't stall at all) and came upon an older looking man in a pickup truck with a plow on the front, stuck on the side of the road about 3/4 of a mile from our driveway. Earlier in the day, Andrew had stuck an extra grain scoop shovel in the back of the truck along with the other one that was already in there and so there was two good shovels for digging along with a logging chain and my cover-alls (that I brought in case we needed to dig ourselves out if we got stuck). Jonathan offered to help pull the guy's truck out of the ditch with our truck and so they hooked up. They dug out a lot of the snow that was around it using the two shovels and pulled on the truck. It was on a pretty steep ditch and the wheels of the truck that were off the road didn't want to come back up onto the road. By this time the brothers and Mom at home began to wonder about Jonathan so Dad took the car and Andrew and David and they drove down the road and found Jonathan shoveling. If I would have remembered to call, Jonathan would have had help sooner! With some more digging and pulling they got the truck out of the ditch.

Now the truck is out and Dad turns the car around and heads home with Andrew, leaving David with Jonathan. Jonathan pulls our truck over to the side of the road so the truck they pulled out (red colored truck) could get around him on the road. The red truck pulled out around our truck (the blue truck) and pulled too far to the side and slid into the ditch again on the other side of the road!

Now Dad is back at home and Jonathan is there shoveling again until it looks like he could pull the red truck out for the second time. The other guy (turns out to be maintenance man for the restaurant near by) offered to help but was already tired from shoveling so he needed to rest. So Jonathan began shoveling and cleaned a lot of the snow away from the red truck and hooked our logging chain to it. The tow belt that the other man had had broken because it was old and frayed so he used our chain. Then, to add to the excitement, Jonathan hooked the chain too short, so our truck was not on the middle of the road. With a jerk, (I am just guessing at this part) our truck strained backward and slid off into the ditch.

Now there are two trucks in the ditch and nobody to pull them out! Jonathan and David started digging and had to dig a path in the snow about 30 yards long in order to get our truck out. Now that our truck is out Jonathan headed home to get some help and loaded a bunch of big eighty-pound logs into the back of the truck for extra weight and went back out to the red truck. Dad took the car in case it would be needed but it wasn't. Now they dug out the snow and it was a simple matter to get the truck out of the ditch. The guy (I don't know his name) offered to buy the whole family a tenderloin dinner at the restaurant he works at with meat "THIS THICK!" he said holding out his fingers about an inch apart.

I wrote this story based on what Jonathan told me, so some parts might have happened a little differently than I wrote it.

Now there was a lot that could have made this not happen like it did. One would be if I had decided not to go vacuum on Sunday (which would have been easy to do), two would be if I had gone a bit earlier or later, three would be if I had called everything might have gotten done faster but I think God had had it all planned out just right!
Peter

She's doing fine now...

2010-02-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

The goat kid is doing pretty well now... Her mother is only giving at most a pint of milk at a time but the kid is able to walk around and nurse off of it's mother. Yesterday afternoon I'd noticed that some of the goats looked like they were ready to kid but when I was heading down to the barn to milk last night I heard a kid crying. It had just been born and was wet and cold but it had already stood up. We brought it in the house to warm up and it was able to walk around. It's not much bigger than a cat right now!

Henry was happy to help clean the milk off of the kid's face after we had fed it.

Dad and David went to pick up the azure standard order this afternoon and I got the gallon jars for milk finally. You don't always know if what you order is going to come until you go to pick it up and we had tried to get those jars in last month's order but they were out of stock for some reason. Peter

A Pleasant Surprise

2010-02-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I just came in from outside helping my brother Andrew pull an old moto-ski snowmobile out of the snowdrift by the semi trailer. He wants to get it going now using parts from the other two we have.

I guess you might be wondering what our pleasant surprise was? Thursday evening we got a call from the Bornneman family saying they were going to be in the area the next day to look at a grain cleaning rig near Landa. We generally don't get to see many of our friends very often so we were exited to get some company! They said they were coming in the afternoon and that Andrew Bornneman would like to stay at our house until Sunday. Of course we said that would be fine with us and Mr. Bornneman and Cora, Jacob and Andrew all came for a short visit the next afternoon. They stayed to visit for a little bit and then had to leave to get home before chore time so we didn't really get to visit a whole lot.

We all had a fun time with Andrew and he helped us figure out what we need to do to get the old cream separator going again as well as fixed a few things on the snowmobile to make it run better. He sure knows what he's doing when working on engines! We played some games in the evenings and music too. Thanks for coming and staying with us Andrew!
This afternoon Dad and Jonathan were going to town so I rode along with them to go vacuum at Metigoshe Ministries. I usually get dropped off there to work but when we drove in we could tell there were a lot of cars in the parking lot so I ran in and checked to see if I should vacuum. Nope. I will have to come back on Wednesday. There was a bunch of people quilting and something going on in the church area so I ended up riding along to town with Dad and Jonathan. I can't remember the last time I went to town, but I think it must have been almost two months ago or so. I'd rather be home working on something here.

Peter

I just came in from milking... One of the goats had a kid this evening and it seems to be doing just fine. It was a goat that was born this spring so both the mother and the kid are small.

Petzl, TIKKA XP Head lamp

2010-01-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pictures of the head light.

It tilts ratchets down if you want to aim towards the ground more.

With the diffuser...

...without the diffuser. When it is not in use it slides to the side.

Here's the booster light (brightest) without the diffuser.

This is the same light only more spread out. It is hard to see much difference when it is so light out already.

It's a great tool to have when it dark out!

Peter

Thank you Everybody!

2010-01-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

I guess I should start by saying that yesterday we celebrated my 16th birthday! I opened a few gifts in the morning and I had a good day overall. I thought Jonathan came up with a neat way for me to have to search for one of the presents from him and my other two brothers. He gave me a box with a little piece of paper in it that said:

"Thou must do what thou art told.
Even if thou must be in the cold.
Search a brother's boot!"

And then when I found a slip of paper in one of the boots in the entry way the note said:

"Smart though thou must be,
even now thou dost not see.
What dost now give thee light?"

There was a piece of paper on the light fixture above me that read:

"Oh man, how thou wilt proceed?
You can only go where'er I lead.
Advance to a lonely quad of wheels."

There was another note in the cab of the truck:

"I give thee heat, but I am cold.
I eat what'er you feed me.
To guess my nature may be bold,
But it is I who holds the key!
Delve into the midst of my belly.

I found the note in the barrel stove in the shop:

"Ha! Ha! Though now you art at my side,
I still will not disclose.
But search the dust to find a guide,
it is there where you will learn to follow your nose.

There was a note in the sawdust under the table saw that read:

"Follow your nose, follow your nose.
I really do mean what I say!
Are you impatient? Do you be weary?
Well don't wet this last bit put you down.

I am part of a circle.
I make things better that take me.
Into one end, out the other.
It's really quite simple, you see.
1/4 of this. 3/4s of that,
maybe a 1/2 cup of some ______
When it's all together, a taste good (to some).
Look in my plastic white soft container!
(dig below the surface now...)"

On each of the notes there was a letter and when they were all put together it read, "GRAIN."
So I ended up finding my present buried under a layer of grain in one of the grain totes in the farm building! Thank you Jonathan, Andrew and David!

We had extra special meal of pizza for supper last night too. There is a lot of work that went into it but here's a few of the points that made it special. It was made with mostly organic (at least as far as we can tell) ingredients, whole wheat, homegrown tomato sauce, cheese (lots of it!) made from our milk, delicious pork sausage from our pig and even a few of the spices were grown right out in our garden! When you wash it down with a glass of milk you wonder how we were able to like eating store bought pizza! Thank you to the Grandparents too for their gifts to me as well!

Now I guess I'll write what came in the mail today... My Uncle sent me a present and said on the note I'd better update my blog! So I tell you about what I got. It's something I've wanted/needed for making chores easier. When I go out to milk, at least right now, it is dark out so I need light. I've been using a very inexpensive 5-bulb LED headlight, that only one of the bulbs works, when I go down to the barn to milk. Well now I have upgraded! My uncle gave me a very nice super bright LED head light that has all sorts of different settings on it for brightness.

I tried it out tonight and it worked really well. It has a sliding light diffuser on it, that spreads out the beam of the light to illuminate a wider area, besides having 4 different light options. Normal brightness, medium brightness, and a low setting. It also has a flashing setting plus a booster light button that is brighter than the normal one! I really like it. Thank you Uncle Mark! It also tells you how much battery is left by a small blinking light that changes to orange and eventually red when it's getting low. It is supposed to last 120 hours on the lowest light setting (perfect for milking) and it runs on three AAA batteries.

I will probably put a few pictures of it on here later...

Peter

Bartlett Farm on the Web!

2010-01-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

This will be a short post because I've been staring at a screen so much lately I can't stand to be on the computer much longer!

You'll have to check out the new website, bartlettfarm.us to see all the products we have available. Dad and I have been working on it mostly. There are some things that will be made easier to understand later, but the basic idea is there. To order, people will have to print out the order form and send it to us through the mail because we won't have a online shopping cart for a while yet.

I thought I should write now so you wouldn't think I quit!

Peter

More milk, less time

2010-01-21T15:34:00.000-08:00

We have been getting a little over 5 gallons of milk each day now and I'm getting pretty quick at it too! I strip her out in a little more than 20 minutes.

We made two churns of butter this morning. We got a old electric butter churn from someone and it is made not to use paddles. The butter is churned by a little metal tube with four holes at the top that spins at the speed of the motor, it is not geared down at all. We put three quarts of cream in and had a little over two pounds of butter in 8-10 minutes. It sure beats shaking it in jars!

We are starting to see the beginning of a storm that is supposed to hit us tomorrow. It is pretty windy and foggy out right now.

This is me playing a guitar tune called "Song for Emily". I learned it from a instructional dvd by a guitar player Kenny Smith. There are a bunch more complicated songs I have yet to learn because they are a lot harder. I would like to learn them all before spring comes.

I took these pictures of Samson today...

I thought the second one was cute! He is trying to get me to throw his deflated basket ball!

Peter

Tuesday afternoon

2010-01-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I went down the hill to spread some fresh straw in the barn for the cow and goats to bed down in. It is supposed to get cold with a big snow storm so the animals will be inside more.

Our barn we built with a few new ideas we had to make cleaning it out easier. We made some of the walls removable so we can customize the layout of the barn. We had the back corner divided off for the cow to be in but it was only 10x10 feet and she didn't have enough room to do much moving around. This afternoon we just un-nailed a few boards and moved the divider wall so now she has a 10x20 foot area where we will keep her when it gets colder out.

Peter

Snowball weather

2010-01-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

Today was sunny and warm like yesterday.

The snow by the house was good for snowballs so me and David practiced our snowballing skills this afternoon. I started out pretty bad and couldn't hit a five gallon bucket at 10 yards (David said I hit ten times out of a hundred) but I increased my accuracy and hit it a little better later on.

Dad and Mom went to town for a home school gathering with some other people and were gone most of the afternoon.

I have to go get ready to milk now.

Peter

Sunny days

2010-01-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I guess it has already been a few days since I wrote last! The weather has been really nice so we've been outside.

A few days ago I went down to the barn and found John (the goat) with his horns all wound up in the carpet hanging on the door of the barn. I had to use my gerber to cut part of the carpet that was wedged between his horns in order to get him untangled. He was wound up pretty tight.

Sandy is doing well. When it got really cold her teats got a little scabbed on the tips because it they got cold (-60 with the wind chill) but now they have healed up and are fine. Last night and a few nights before I only took about 30 minutes to milk. That included walking to the barn and back and washing and dipping the teats before and after milking and drying everything off after that. I was noticing how shiny and healthy her coat looks and that is due to the mineral mix and copper that we've been giving her. I'll post more about our experiences with copper sulfate in another blog post sometime.

Samson likes to ride in the truck with us and watch out the windows. He doesn't like the car as much because he can't sit up and look around but he loves going for a ride in the truck. In the picture we were going down the road a ways to dump the leftover goat skins and heads on the back road for the coyotes.

In case you're wondering why my blog got messed up it was because I tried to upload a different template and lost the old one and now I can't get the header to come back. Sometimes blogger is frustrating....

Peter

Goat butchering

2010-01-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

We went out after lunch and cut up a few of the goat kids that were born this spring. It went pretty quick and we were done with five of them in a little over an hour. I gutted two of them and Jonathan did the other three. We carried them up from the barnyard and hung them on the gambrel beside the house to skin them. Our friend Steve came over yesterday and sharpened a bunch of our knives for us on his electric sharpener and then came over here to help us with the goats today also.

Four of the goats were young bucks that we had wanted to get rid of for a while but we were waiting for a nice day to do it. I don't think we could have asked for a nicer day! It was around 35 degrees this afternoon so our hands and feet didn't feel too cold. The other goat was a little doe that we kept for us in the freezer. The bucks weren't castrated so we didn't want to keep the meat.

We "dispatched" the goats with the .22 in the back of the head and then slit the throat to let them bleed out. After the animal is dead it doesn't seem to me that it is any different than a pile of meat with the hair on. We have a handy little saw we use for cutting the bone between the rear legs and sawing through the rib cage that makes gutting really easy. It has a plastic end on the tip so that there is very little chance of puncturing the intestines.

Speaking of gutting, this summer while we were butchering chickens Jonathan and I timed ourselves to see how fast we could gut a chicken and do a fairly good job. I think my fastest was a minute and a half and Jonathan got one done in a minute and 20 seconds. We had quite a few to practice on!

Peter

A bit about our Goats

2010-01-10T14:36:00.000-08:00

Well, today turned out to be a pretty nice day. We don't have a thermometer outside that works so I'm not sure how warm it got but it felt nice! We spent this morning singing some songs and did a Bible study focused on 1Peter chapter two. We have been working together on 1Peter chapter one to memorize it but I think I've only gotten 12 verses down.

I was thinking of what to write about and decided I'd say a few things about our goats.

Everybody seems to think that all billy goats butt. None of the bucks we've ever had have even tried to butt any of us! We have had quite a few different ones and they are all either really friendly, or they keep away from us (I prefer they stay away!).

Also, everyone seems to think that all goats are hard to keep in. This is only true for unhappy goats! (in our experience). We have had goats that will stay in a pen that the bedding has built up so high that there is only a 18 inch fence keeping them in and they don't jump over. I guess that when they have got plenty of water and food they don't feel like going anywhere.

Through all of this summer, we had the dairy goats held in by one strand of electric wire (that was not electrified!) and only had a few times where one (the same one every time) would lead the rest back to the barn when it started raining. Goats don't like rain.

I guess we did have one little billy goat that wouldn't respect the electric fence (even with 7000 volts) and would get out pretty frequently but he will be butchered soon.

We have pretty friendly goats. They have all got their personalities too. It is funny so see how they all react differently to things. Some get mad, some get curious, and some run away!

The goats have their pecking order just like any other animal. The bosses get the first of everything and the rest have to wait. It seems that the low end goats aren't allowed to fight back when they are banged around and just have to get out of the way.

John (the big buck) is the highest ranking goat and gets his way with everything. He has got a set of horns on him that are probably about 30 or so inches across and he rubs them on anything he can get his hooves on! OSB sheathing doesn't last long when they are constantly scraped on with sharp horns.

Peter

Warmer weather hopefully

2010-01-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

I just came in from outside to warm up my feet. It was warmer today but still not really warm so Andrew and I were out in the shop. Yesterday we were out there too and started the wood stove that Andrew and Jonathan put in. That warmed up the shop pretty well. It is made of a 30 gallon oil drum with legs and a door that my Grandpa welded together. I think is supposed to get warmer for the next few days. I hope so!

A few days ago I came in from milking in the morning and I couldn't feel the ends of my fingers! It wasn't seriously frozen but just cold so I let them warm up by the wood stove.

We've been doing a little more practicing music together lately, getting ready for a few places we will be playing at in February.

Mom has been making cheese today to use up some of the leftover milk that is in the refrigerator. After making one type of cheese (we call it pizza cheese because it melts) she uses the whey and boils it down and makes another type of cheese called mysost. It is a brown cheese that can be made with cows milk or goats milk. There are a lot of Norwegian people around here that like it because it was originated in Norway and the only place to buy it is mail order from Norway! I guess they charge a dollar an ounce for it if you buy it. I like it on toast for breakfast with a little raspberry jam on top of it and it goes down real well with a bowl of fresh yogurt!

Peter

What is it?

2010-01-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

The light from above bounces off a shiny object. It is sitting quietly on the floor to my left, a dark shadow covering the side close to the box of potatoes next to it. It is comprised of mostly a cylinder, fitted with various attachments clinging to the outside in a useful arrangement. On the straight sides of the cylinder, close to the floor, there is a depression in it's surface that continues all the way around and smoothly slopes back to the surface of the object. Approximately eighteen inches off the floor the sides of this curious object make a sudden bend inward, forming a sloping cone for a distance of about three inches, and then continues upward.

From the floor to its top, this metallic object measures about twenty inches, including a dome shaped piece made of the same material that can be fitted into the wide opening on the top of this object. Attached to this inverted dome is a pipe, bent to form an arc reaching from one side to the other which makes the placement of the dome onto the main compartment quick and easy.

There are two solid bars attached firmly to the edge of the main compartment, lined up directly across from each other and two hinged latches located near the rim of the opening.

The interior of this object is similar to the outside except that the finish is not as reflective. There is no seam in the construction of the main compartment and it is very clean.

What is it?

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think it is.

Peter

Risk: game of global domination

2010-01-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I guess it's been a while since I wrote last so I will sit down and write now.

I'm in the middle of a desperate game of Risk right now. I guess I'm not doing too bad though, I have conquered all of north and south America and am moving east through northern Africa. I have fortified my continents pretty well too and now I just captured all of Africa! Now everyone else (Jonathan, Andrew and David) are starting to conspire against me to wipe my army off the board. Next time it is David's turn he will be trading in his set of three cards for 45 additional armies and will attempt to re-take the land I conquered. We don't play Risk too often but when we do it can take a few days to finish it. We have been working on this game for five days now!

The weather is supposed to get a lot colder now starting tonight so we will keep most of the animals inside the barn for now. We don't want frozen teats. We started using a homemade teat dip for sanitizing the cow's udder and teats before and after milking. We found the recipe at http://www.fiascofarm.com/. There is a lot of helpful information on there and it is more focused on goats but the information is similar for cows.

We had some trouble with the wood stove pipe rusting (because it was cheap galvanized tin stuff) but this afternoon dad set up some triple wall pipe and got the wood stove running again which is nice because the floor heat was costing us quite a bit to run. With floor heat there isn't any place for you to warm up when you come in from outside because all the heat is the same through the whole house.

Just now as the sun is going down I can see "sun dogs" on each side of the sun so it must be getting colder out.

Peter

End of 2009

2009-12-31T18:25:00.001-08:00

Well, today is the last day in the history of the world that I can blog and say it is 2009! For our family there is not really anything special about today.

Dad just got done frying a double batch of donuts so we ate some and we will freeze the rest. They are great as a snack or for breakfast. I was over at Metigoshe Ministries for a while this afternoon to take down tables and chairs from a funeral this morning, vacuum, then set up 120 chairs for the church.

Andrew has been creating some pretty neat 3D drawings on a new program we got called "Blender."

You start out with a mesh frame and construct the basic shapes and then you can add fill colors and lighting and textures and look at it in 3D. I guess you can animate your drawings as well and make a movie of them. It is a pretty complicated program to use but once you figure out how to run everything it goes pretty fast.

This is the screen you edit and shape the drawings with. You can create landscapes and all sorts of different drawings with it.

Peter

P.S. I think I'll wait to blog until next year :0) !

Back to work...

2009-12-30T19:09:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

We had a fun few days with my Uncle and Aunt who drove out here from Minnesota on Monday. They live a few miles down the road from where my grandparents live where Mom grew up in Carlton MN. We played games with them and visited mostly. They hadn't been here since the upstairs of the house was just being shelled in so there was a lot to show them around the farm.

Today I had to go to Metigoshe ministries to vacuum again after going yesterday and I will need to go tomorrow also. They had an event called "Nights of Christmas" held there and there was a lot of stuff for me to vacuum up and sweep off the kitchen floor. There is quite a few spruce trees set up in the church sanctuary that are always dropping needles on the floor so today I used the shop-vac to clean up all of them.

We had the snowplow come up and plow us out (finally) but he didn't get it plowed all the way up to the house so we had to blow the snow for a driveway to get the car down to the front door.

Milking the cow has been getting easier now that my hands are getting used to it. Sandy has been giving us about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 gallons each time. I'm still slow at milking her (not fast enough for it to foam) and it's been taking me about an hour to strip her out. We are getting about a quart of cream off of each one gallon jar that has been sitting for 12 hours. We haven't made ice cream yet but we've been using our own butter. This afternoon Mom made a batch of simple soft cheese that we tried melting on pizza for supper. Taste was perfect! I got the first pieces because I had to go milk.

You can't beat the taste of pizza made with pizza sauce made with homegrown tomatoes, crisp crust made with (mostly) freshly ground whole wheat, locally grown organic beef and fresh homemade cheese!

I guess it's time to go to bed now so I will be done with this blog post...

Peter

Truck stuck

2009-12-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I was supposed to go vacuum at the church but we're stuck here until the grader makes it through. We shoveled the truck out and loaded the back with a stack of heavy firewood and tried to make it but even a four wheel drive pickup won't go through an 20" snowdrift very well. We shoveled some but that didn't work for the whole driveway. If the plow makes it in tomorrow I will go then.

Andrew started up the snow blower and cut through the snowbanks by the house for a walkway. The temperature is not too far below zero but the wind makes it seem worse.

Dad went down the driveway to check the road to see if the county plowed that but they hadn't so far.

The animals in the barn are doing well. I've been milking Sandy at 7:00 and we've been getting a little over two gallons each time. There has been a little blood in the milk but it is clearing up now. We are looking forward to making cheese, butter, ice cream and more, all things that don't taste the same if you use goat's milk.

Yesterday we sent in a few orders for some stainless steel milking equipment to keep the milking process clean and sanitized. If you're planning on getting anything stainless steel be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for it! As soon as we feel sure about the milking procedure and system for cooling we will start to advertise locally for selling cow shares. We have most everything figured out for how to handle the contract and bottling and pickup of the milk.

Calliope stays outside even through the snowstorms so this morning she came up to me and asked me to help her scrape the ice off her coat. :-) She is the boss of the barnyard. Second in command is the billy goat John. The the cow and the other 15 goats pretty much stay out of their way.

This is a logo I drew on the computer to go on the post cards we plan on sending out for advertising. We may even have nice labels on the milk bottles later on. We will start with regular one gallon jars to trade back and forth each week when people come here to pick up their cow's milk.

That's all for right now- Peter

How much can you learn in 24 hours?

2009-12-23T14:05:00.001-08:00

Hello,

If you've checked any of my family member's blogs you have probably heard our heifer had her calf. Well, she had it. This afternoon it started showing signs of pneumonia and not long after that it ended up dieing. Even when it was first delivered it did not make any effort to raise itself and we probably should have warmed it up quicker than we did. We decided to leave it in the barn for an hour at least and see if its mother would get up and dry it off. Sandy the mother didn't want to get up at all and we read that early signs of milk fever can start to show soon after birth and so we suspected she might be down for that reason.

We took the little bull calf up to the house to warm it up and we thought it might recover. It was shivering a little so we covered it in blankets and it warmed up some. We milked out a little colostrum from the cow and used some powdered stuff and tried to get some down the calf but it wasn't able to suck on its own from a bottle. We tried using a save-a-kid syringe and that worked and we got about 2 quarts of colostrum down it in a few hours.

We have had some experience with milk fever in goats before and knew what to do and had the IV supplies on hand so it went quick and easy for the cow. Even if it wasn't milk fever for sure we thought we'd try it anyway to be safe. I have read that jersey cows can have more problems with milk fever because of the high milk to body weight ratio and it isn't rare to see it it soon after birth. After the (subcutaneous) injection was done the cow seemed to perk up a lot and was back to normal again.

We didn't feel we could leave the calf alone until we had fed it enough so Jonathan, Dad and I worked with it and ended up going to bed at 4:15 this morning. I had been up since 6:45 yesterday morning to get ready to go help with the sheep so I was up for about 21 hours. Probably a record for me. I chose not to look at the clock to see how late it was and nobody told me what time it was so I didn't feel too tired until about 1:30 and then was glad to get some rest when we were done. Jonathan and Dad were up every hour after that to check on the calf but I didn't wake up until it was time to go out and milk out the cow again.

This afternoon Dad and David decided to run to town (not literally) and pick up some things from Nodak and see what the vet carried for supplies. A little while after he left we saw the calf start to get a lot worse and called the store and asked them if they had seen Dad there. The owner and most of the employees know who we are and got Dad on the end of the line for us to talk to. We had looked up pneumonia and saw a we needed to have vitamin C injections to give the calf and asked him to pick that up and come back home soon. The calf died fifteen minutes before he got here so it was too late.

I guess the conclusion of the birth was:

not to calve for the first time in December, to feed a more rounded mineral supplement going up to calving and have a higher percent calcium content, warm up the calf immediately even if it is pretty warm outside, keep vitamin C injections an hand as well as everything else needed and keep learning everything you can about cows and calving.

We'll do better next time,

Peter

Sheep herder

2009-12-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well, this morning was an adventure!

Jonathan, David and I hopped in the car after doing chores and headed to the neighbor north of us to help him with his sheep. There was a professional sheep shearer coming at eight o'clock to shear his 75 head of sheep.

We pulled in the driveway a little early even though we drove slowly on the way there. Mr. Pozarnsky (our neighbor) had all the sheep sorted into his various small barns and had 35 of the black-faced sheep waiting in the barn where the shearing was going to be done. When Mr. Gietzen (the shearer) came we helped him unload his equipment and set it up in the barn. He had a chute with a spring loaded door where the sheep would be let out of and a wool packer and few other odds and ends along with his electric shearer.

We started the process by herding the mass of sheep towards the opening of the chute and a few of them willingly entered but most of them dashed past us as they were driven into the corner. David hopped over the short divider wall and chased the few sheep in the chute down to the other end to be sheared. When we tried again to get a few more into the chute, the pressure of 20 sheep pushing against each other forced the small door on the end of barn to give way and six sheep got out before I could get the door to close again. Propping the door shut (it wouldn't stay because the latch had broke) I helped clear the sheep away from the corner and Jonathan helped Mr. Pozarnsky corner and pen up the runaway sheep. Meanwhile, David herded the animals that were in the chute down to the other end as Mr. Gietzen finished up all the ones that he could reach. We left the ones that escaped outside until there was fewer in the main pen and then chased them in again. Even in the short time they were outside some frost had formed on their wool but I guess that was okay. The wool is supposed to be as clean and dry as possible.

After the pen of black-faced sheep was done, I helped herd a pen black-faced ewe lambs in to be sheared. The young ones were eager to follow each other and that made the job of chasing them down the chute a little easier. Some of the older ewes had to be either picked up or shoved the whole way down the chute in order to get them to move. After the young black-faced sheep were done, we herded a bunch of adult white-faced sheep into the barn. The wool is finer on the white-faced sheep so the wool had to be kept separate. These sheep were much easier to herd around and we didn't have to do much but stand behind them and keep the line moving.

Mr. Gietzen was really fast at shearing and could get a sheep done in about 2 minutes and not nick them at all with the cutter. He does it a lot and according to his website he has sheared sheep all around the world!

After the older white-faced sheep had been sheared we brought in the white faced lambs and he sheared them. When each different group had been sheared, they were herded into the different pens and barns that they had come from to keep warm.

After the sheep were sheared I thought they reminded me of peeled potatoes!

When the wool was cut off the sheep, Jonathan took it and stuffed it into the hydraulic packer machine and it compressed the fleeces of about thirty sheep into one big burlap bag. Mr. Pozarnsky keeps the wool until later in the year and then brings it to Bismark and sells it there.

Fun day!

Peter

Tired...

2009-12-21T17:33:00.000-08:00

Right now I feel like going to bed. It's dark out. I feel like I didn't get much done. I sat inside and did home school all morning. I was at Metigoshe Ministries all afternoon vacuuming. I was there from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. My legs are tired from walking. The wood stove is hot. The air the wood stove is blowing is hot. Now I'm hot. I don't know what to write. I only write what I know. So this is all I know. I am thinking of what to write. What I've written is all I am thinking about. Goodnight.

Peter

14 Hour drive

2009-12-18T16:02:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Last night Dad and Jonathan got home with a trailer full our wood siding. We would have liked to have picked it up sooner but we had to wait for the weather to be better so it could be milled. We borrowed a 16' car trailer from our neighbor to haul the wood back and Dad checked over everything in the truck the day before so yesterday morning they left here at 6:00. They got to the sawmill in Bemidji Minnesota after a 7 hour drive, loaded up, and headed home and got back here about 11:00 last night. That means they were sitting in the truck for about 14 hours! They said it was a long day.

We still need to get the stain, but after that we are ready to start putting it up. That will be exiting!!!

The cow still hasn't delivered...
Peter

It's melting out!

2009-12-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

Right now the sun is shining and it is above freezing outside! I think it is the first day in December that is above zero. I went down to the barn and took a few pictures last evening...

Sandy (no she hasn't delivered her calf yet).

This is where the cow will be when we will milk.

Peter

Furniture puzzles are comfortable too!

2009-12-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

Making a furniture puzzle

2009-12-15T16:11:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

This afternoon I went out to the shop and cut out a couple of furniture puzzles with the band saw. I took a few pictures of the process for you to see:

I mark out the first cut on one side of the block. The block is two inches thick and about 2 1/2" by 4 1/2".

After that those cuts are made I cut out the two pieces you see on the scroll saw. The band saw can't make that sharp of a turn so I use the scroll saw for that job.

Then I turn the block on its side and cut out the two chairs and the pieces under the chairs.

Then I tip it again and cut out the little bench from under the chair.

And that is all the pieces. There are no extra parts in that block of wood! There are 10 pieces: two chairs, two benches, a table and what is supposed to be a couch. I would like to have some hardwood to try making one out of but these were made of pine. We got one that I copied from a garage sale that was an antique, made of redwood, but the only other place I've ever seen one made was in one of the "Foxfire" books.

Peter

Potato chips

2009-12-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Right now the temperature says -11 and the wind picked up this afternoon so I'm sure it feels even colder than that outside. I have been still milking the goats (even though we're not getting much) and the first few squirts that hit the bowl freeze onto the metal. My hands aren't very warm either! It would be nice to have the barn insulated but that won't happen for a while. Mom and Jonathan are in Minot selling at a heath food meeting with Paulette. Jonathan was just going to advertise his chicken but Mom brought a bunch of jam and bagels to sell there.

Tonight Dad sliced a bunch of potatoes and we fried them and salted them. They taste just like real potato chips!

That's all for now,
Peter

Saturday

2009-12-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Yesterday was a little bit warmer than it was today but even though it was cold I was still able to get some things done outside. Yesterday Jonathan and I put together a head-holder for the cow down in the barn. I will post a few pictures when I have some to post. I was out in the shop today starting to work on making a few furniture puzzles but it was getting dark and really cold so I had to quit for the day. Jonathan put the topper on the back of the truck this afternoon and this time we bolted it on because last time we had it on truck we used small C clamps and they ended up bending so we couldn't unscrew them anymore. Bolts should work better.

Every time I'm outside I am usually wearing all of these:

-my insulated bibbed overalls,

-my navy blue carhartt hat,

-my polar king work jacket given to me from my Uncle,

-my new Gemplar's waterproof insulated pigskin gloves,

-and my extreme cold U.S. army issue "mickey mouse" boots.

Even with all that on sometimes I get cold when the wind is blowing hard!

Peter

Tuesday

2009-12-08T17:58:00.000-08:00

The temperature outside tonight must be well below zero! It was too cold to be outside much but I did go out and put up a gate across a doorway in the barn this afternoon. We are getting everything ready in the barn for the cow to deliver her calf which should be in a week or so. Jonathan, Andrew and David went down to Willow City to get some grain with the pickup. They left about 2 pm and we got a little worried when they hadn't showed up at 5:30 so Dad took the car and drove the route they would have to go on to come back and thankfully met them a mile from our driveway. They had to stop in town and fill up one of the tires that was low but they didn't get stuck and it just took a while to get there and back. Willow City is about 30 miles from here. When they got home they were covered in grain dust from holding open the bag to fill it and the heater in the truck didn't kick on until the trip back so on the way down they froze!

All the animals seem to be doing well. The goats sleep in a bit later than usual in the cold weather and the horse doesn't even go into the barn when it is this cold. She has got an inch or so of hair on her hide already so she can't even tell it's winter!

We are all set on our wood supply for the winter thanks to a really nice fall and so far the wood stove has kept the house warm and sometimes it's too hot in here.

Dad brought down some pumpkins that were upstairs because it was about 35 degrees and we didn't want them to freeze. As you can see he cut some of them up this afternoon also.

That's all for now,
Peter

P.S. the cat just knocked

a plant off the window sill and covered the piano and floor behind the chair with dirt!

Friday

2009-12-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

Well, hopefully we are done with raw meat a while! The sun was out for the first time since it snowed so I was outside for a little bit. It is kind of hard to adjust from fall to winter in a few days.

David had our snowboard out (an old one that doesn't have any place to attach your feet) and was sliding from near the house to down the hill a little ways so I thought I would give it a try too. He said I could do it after he had gone a few more times so when he handed me the rope, I decided to try the steep hill in front of the house. Part way down the hill I fell over. When you stand up on a slippery snowboard without your knees bent you usually don't get very far, so I went back up to the top to try again. This time I got all the way down the hill, plowing through about eight inches of snow I felt the snowboard hit a log and then I toppled over and landed on a tree half buried in snow. I had known there was some trees there and piles of sticks but I didn't think to steer around them so right now I'm sitting here with a sprained thumb. At least it is my left hand so I can still type with my right one. Jonathan had me put on a onion poultice to help make the swelling go down. Earlier this year I sprained the same thumb while trying to snap a small board in two and it took a while before it healed up.

It's time for supper now. Venison steak, yum!

Peter

Venison

2009-12-03T18:36:00.000-08:00

Not too much to say right now. Last night we took a few quarters of deer out of the freezer to thaw so we left them upstairs in a safe place to keep the mess out of the kitchen until we were ready to cut it up. We brought it all down this morning but none of it was soft enough to process. It was about 45 degrees up there and apparently that wasn't warm enough, so we ended up leaving it on the kitchen table until this afternoon. I went to vacuum after lunch and was hoping that when I got home everybody else would have started cutting up venison without me and would be almost done! When I got home Jonathan was just sharpening knives and the meat was still a little stiff so we got going late. We finished doing what we had thawed out a little while ago. It is about 9:00 pm now. We will do some more tomorrow.

Peter

A Morning in November

2009-12-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

I rolled over in bed and opened my eyes. The clock on the dresser read six twenty-five. I had a habit of waking up in time to milk but this morning the fire in the wood stove had been left to die out and the house was chilly in the morning air. It felt good to stay in bed a little longer than usual and besides it was probably still too dark to do chores yet anyway. I just laid there relaxing under the warmth of two thick blankets trying to feel like getting up.

A few minutes later I reopened my eyes to find that the clock read six thirty-one. Flipping the covers off, I slipped out of bed, ducking to avoid striking my forehead on the bunk above me and walked softly to the peg where my jeans were hung. After dressing quietly in the bathroom I was trying to walk as silently as I could through the hall leading to the kitchen when I stumbled on a box that was invisible to me in the darkness. Just then I heard one of my brothers roll over in bed so I waited until all was quiet again and then entered the kitchen.
The glow of moonlight that shown through the window was enough to allow me to make my way noiselessly to the lamp resting on the sill above the sink and switch it on. I moved over to where the stainless steel milk pail and dishes were kept and brought them to the sink, filled the smallest dish with warm soapy water and then setting it carefully into the other dishes I picked up the handle and carried them along with me. On my way to the door I stopped and opened up a small container above my desk and picked out a wash cloth and dropped it into the soapy water.

In the entry way I stooped down to put on my sturdy leather work boots and before I had tied the first knot I felt two small paws pounce on my hand and then disappear into the shadows. It was the kitten we had kept in the house since it was small, playing with the laces of my boots as I tied them. Reaching out and picking up the cat I stroked its soft fur and it began to purr contentedly.

By now the darkness outside had become a lighter shade of gray as the sun approached the eastern horizon and I knew I probably should have been down in the barn by now. So, I buttoned up my faded denim chore jacket, grabbed my well used LED flashlight and picked up the milk pail and headed outside. Samson, our family German shepherd dog, slipped from his dog house and came trotting towards me wagging his tail excitedly. With my free hand I reached down and petted him as he came up and he gave a groan like he does when you find the right spot as my fingers scratched his ear. I told him he was a good dog as we started down the trail to the barn and he gave a little bark to show he understood what I was saying.
I walked down the wood chip covered pathway winding down the hill to the chicken coop, sweeping the ground ahead of me with the beam of my flashlight. The sound of my feet crunching the blades of frozen grass alerted the animals of my approach and the horse greeted me with a friendly nicker as I passed by.

With one smooth motion I unfastened the latch on the barn door and it creaked as it swung open, resting heavily on the strap hinges that supported it. After I closed the door I heard the rustle of the goats moving closer to the small interior door waiting their turn to be brought out and milked. Opening the cabinet where I kept grain and other items commonly needed in the barn I set the milking pail and dishes on an empty shelf and lifted the wooden latch on the goat door to let the first goat out onto the milking stand. With a graceful jump the goat was on the stand putting its head through the slot into the feed tray. I tossed a partial scoop of corn and oats into the bin for her to eat and wiped its udder with the wash cloth. Samson gave a contented sigh as he settled down into a pile of straw near by and watched me take the bowl down and begin to milk.

A little bit later I poured the contents of the smaller bowl into the larger two gallon container and brought out the second animal. This one did not jump up onto the milking stand so easily but was eager to have the grain in the tray so it managed well enough.

In a couple minutes I finished stripping out the last goat and poured the rich white milk into the pail thinking to myself of all the delicious food that it would be made into. Samson stood up when the last animal was put away and put his paws on the milk stand as I lowered the empty dish down for him to lap up any milk left in the bottom. I splashed the rest of the soapy water over the bowl when he was done and wrung out the washcloth onto the dirt floor and stacked the empty dishes. A few steps later I was outside in the morning air, headed for the house with Samson trotting along beside me.

Busy week

2009-11-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and a few days before we drove over to a friends place and helped them work on a pole barn they had started and wanted to get done before snowfall. We left our place early to get there about eight o'clock each day that we went.

The first couple days we fixed trusses and put a few of them up on the walls. The building was one that was taken down a few years ago so a lot of the trusses needed repair.

When the trusses were up we nailed on the cross pieces that you see in the picture above every two feet for the tin roofing to be screwed to.

The pink insulation we stapled down before the tin so that water in the air wouldn't condense on the tin and drip after it was finished.

We had all the roof tin all screwed down before we stopped for lunch. Then after lunch we put up almost half of the wall tin.

This is where we stopped for the night. We ate a good supper and then got home around 10:30 pm.

This morning Dad, David, Andrew and I went out on the lake skating. The ice is somewhere around three inches thick in most places. We went out to the peninsula where the beaver lodge is and back a few times (about a quarter mile) and only heard an occasional crunch in the ice so it must be thick enough.

Peter

Noodle making

2009-11-21T17:07:00.000-08:00

After lunch I offered to help Mom make noodles since we were running low on our supply of them in the cabinet. I was in the shop when she called me in to tell me the batter was done being chilled and I could do them when I was done. David had asked me to help him make some miniature wooden cargo ships according to some directions we have in a book to try selling at a home business sale going to be held at the homeschool convention next year. We had just finished the step we were on so I went inside to roll and cut the noodles.
These are some of them. A little while after I had the first batch done Mom made a second batch for me to do since we had everything set up.

The noodle maker has seven different thickness settings so I started with 7 then went to 5 then 2, and that was thin enough. You can make spaghetti noodles with this machine but we were doing regular egg noodles. In the picture above the dough being rolled for the last time.

It makes it easier to put the thin noodles on the drying racks if you hold a butter knife against the noodles as they come out and lift up to make them drape over the knife then transfer them to the rack. It takes a little while to do a whole bunch of noodles but when we have a lot done we put them in the freezer to have in soups and casseroles later . So far as I can tell these noodles are much better tasting than store bought egg noodles!

We just got done with supper--fresh pork, fresh potatoes, beans from this year and homemade applesauce. Can't get much better than that! Makes me feel like going to bed.

Peter

Hay feeder

2009-11-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I put together another hay feeder for the animals. I just had one feeder for the main area and had to fill it up at least two, sometimes three times a day. Sometimes I can tell if the weather is going to change (for the worse) by how much the animals eat the day before. The air pressure must let them know a head of time when they will need more food.

The feeder is simply two pallets put together with sections of old floor boards with legs nailed on to those. When the cow knocks it over and it all falls apart you just put some additional nails in along with the old ones and it is like new again!

Now I will fill up three feeders each morning.

These were a few of this year's kids that we will soon butcher.

Pounce.......

......got him!
That's what happens to mice around here. But we have been giving the cats cat food so they aren't hungry enough to want to eat the mice they catch right away so they play with the mice until they don't move any more and then eat it or else a different cat takes it away and eats it.

This morning the sun hadn't risen above the tree tops until around 8:15. So I do chores in the dark, morning and evening.

Peter

Tuesday

2009-11-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

It is another nice day outside today! On Sunday, a friend of ours and his family came up from the Minot AFB to visit and have supper. We hauled three heaping pickup loads of wood with his help from near the old cabin also. They left after supper around 9:30 pm.

The lake is almost completely frozen over now with thin layer of ice. We haven't chopped a hole to see how deep it is yet but when it is a few inches thick we will try skating on it. If it freezes before it snows we have a 60 acre skating rink! That is a lot of fun. We usually break off curved sticks for hockey sticks and cut a slice of hardwood for a puck and have fun playing hockey (with our own set of rules).

Jonathan is playing banjo now so I'll go join him,

Peter

Quick post

2009-11-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today we hauled 4 loads of composted sheep manure from a neighbor north of us. He used his tractor bucket to fill up the trailer and truck and then we unloaded it by hand and spread it over the garden. With such a long fall we have been able to do a lot more garden clean up and preparation for next year that we hadn't been able to get done other years because of snow in the end of October or beginning of November. I got back not too long ago from picking up tables and vacuuming at metigoshe ministries. They had a quilting retreat and needed me to help clean up for church tomorrow morning.

Peter

2009-11-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and today were somewhere close to 50 degrees so we have been outside mostly. Today it has clouded over some and I think it is supposed to get colder soon. Yesterday I helped Andrew and David finish the dry kidney beans that were in the shop so today Andrew was busy cleaning up and organizing in there.

That is Henry on Andrew's back.

When I'm down at the barn Samson will jump up on the hay bale to get attention.

He loves it when you kick the ball for him to chase. He will pounce on it and then pick it up and bring it back to you to kick again. Any of the balls we want to keep nice we have to keep out of his reach or he'll ruin them within a couple of minutes.

Monday

2009-11-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

We got the barn all painted yesterday. At least we used up the paint in the one 5 gallon bucket we started with and thought we had a whole bucket left but it ends up that the other bucket of the same company paint was oil-based and a totally different shade of red. We had all the sides that you can see on the barn painted and had 3/4 of the back side done when we ran out. We will leave it like that for now until we get some more paint.

Today we did homeschool like usual and after lunch I went to metigoshe ministries to vacuum. When I got back Jonathan was doing a final till in the garden so I went down and put a homemade latch on one of the barn doors. I came up with the design. It is just a piece of re-bar cut about four feet long, bent at a 90 degree angle five inches from the end (for a handle). The handle goes through a upside down "J" slot in the door and the top fits into a hole that goes through the top of the door into the barn wall. When the door is unlocked the handle rests in the bottom of the slot and the tip of the re-bar is flush with the top of the door. When it's locked the handle sits in the end of the "J" that is a few inches higher than the bottom of the slot and the re-bar is sticking up through the door into the wall. So far it has kept the doors shut.

This evening Mom made a new recipe that we hadn't had before. It was for bagels. They tasted really good! She had to boil the dough in water for a certain amount of time and then bake them. I will look forward to having them often!

Peter

Barn Priming

2009-11-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Today it got to be about 70 degrees so we were able to finish priming the barn. We all went down the hill to work on it right about noon and had lunch a little later and then finished it about 4 o'clock.

If it is warm enough tomorrow we put the paint on it. This morning Dad went to town and did some shopping and errands and then in the afternoon installed a window upstairs in the room where the bathroom will be.

Most every day Jonathan and I have been practicing music together and we like to listen to music while we work, so we brought the CD player down to the barn and played one of our favorite bands "Blue Highway." It was kind of funny to watch the animals reaction to the music. They were all sitting in the shade of the barn (because it was actually hot in the sun), chewing their cud and almost every single one of them (including the cow and horse) had their ears pointed towards the CD player and their eyes shut, listening to the music. We were wondering if we sped the song up would they chew faster? We didn't try it.

Mom is cutting everybody else's hair tonight. I had mine buzzed not too long ago so I don't need it yet.

I guess Dad is going to go read G.A. Henty to us so I will stop here.

Peter

2009-11-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

Hi again,

I think it's supposed to be nice out today but right now I feel pretty chilly! We didn't bother to start the wood stove this morning so my toes are cold. Yesterday Jonathan helped me put another door on the barn we built last fall. When Jonathan and I designed the barn, we made it with a 12'x8' door on each side so that it would be easier to clean out and let air flow through. Earlier this year our friend Steve came and cleaned it all out with his bobcat and it fit through the doors nicely. It's not a very big barn, 20' x 32', but it is big enough for our needs right now. It has 10' walls so we can add on an addition if we run out of room. Anyway, we had put up the doors on the north side last year but hadn't put the ones up on the south face until now. Now the snow won't blow in as much. We made the doors in two 6' sections that hinge and the part we put up yesterday was only the top 4' of the door so there's room for the animals to go in and out when the doors are shut. We will hang something over the opening that they can push through so it blocks the wind a little more. I'm still milking four goats and getting two quarts each time so we've been having yogurt for breakfast sweetened with homegrown raspberry sauce. Yum! If it warms up enough we are going to prime and paint the other half of the barn before it gets really cold out.

The cow is looking really big now so it won't be long until she has her calf. That will be fun to have a bunch of cream and butter!

Peter

Wow!

2009-11-03T18:24:00.001-08:00

"Wow!" that's what Mom said when I told her I was going to blog! It's been over a year now since I blogged last but now I would like to start it up again.

Today we spent the most of the day cutting up one of our pigs. Andrew and David helped Jonathan kill, gut, and skin it yesterday while I was away doing my vacuuming job at metigoshe ministries. We sold the other pig to two people and brought half down to the butcher in town for them to process and delivered the other half to people that wanted to cut it up themselves. We just finished cutting the fat into smaller pieces to be rendered into lard when Mom is ready.

This week is supposed to be really nice weather like today so we can get a bunch more outdoor things done before snow.
I've been having fun driving myself around. A week ago or so I passed the test and received my driver's permit down in Bottineau. The day after I got it we were going to Minot (100 miles away) so I got to drive there. It's not too difficult in the rural areas but I'm not comfortable driving in town yet. I have a silly kitten sitting in my lap right now that plays with anything he can reach even if he has to climb up your leg to get to it. He's watching my fingers typing ready to pounciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg---------------o0oooooooooooooo he just walked on the keyboard and typed his uyfrrrrrrrrrrrrr message to you.

Peter

We're getting some rain!

2008-06-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hello,

We're finally getting some badly needed rain here. Someone said about 65 hundredths of an inch. We might be getting more tonight. In the fields our hay is only a couple of inches high so we have to move the goat pens twice a day instead of once.

This is our super inexpensive goat pasturing pen. It is four cattle panels put together with a pen on wheels that is detachable. I fits about four mothers + kids. We detach it with the goats in the cattle panel area and then move that and then move the shelter and re-attach it. In the picture is my fancy milking stand that folds up against the pen. It works really good!

Here's one of our kids.

Yesterday and today we practiced doing a little survival skills getting ready for an event coming up in New Salem called Prairie Days. Jonathan is going to help with a survival hike. Yesterday we made a water purification tripod (I don't know what it is really called) and drank lake water. Here's a couple of pictures:

You pour the water in the top through the grass, then it seeps through the sand, then it goes through charcoal.
The water on the right is pure lake water and the one on the left is water that was filtered. It made it a little bit clearer when we filtered it.
We poured it through another cloth to strain out any silt that got in there and Jonathan and I both tried it and thought it tasted pretty much like regular filtered water.

Since it rained last night we tried another way of gathering water today. You are supposed to tie a cloth to your leg and walk through tall grass, but we just dragged a rag around to the old cabin and back and along the way squeezed out the water when it got wet enough. The water from that wasn't as nice looking as the filtered lake water but we tried it and it tasted like distilled water. You're supposed to do it in the dew instead of after it rained but we thought it was close enough. Hopefully we won't ever have to depend on those types of getting water but it is good to know.

Peter

Today

2008-04-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hello,

A lot of things have happened since I last wrote. We had the ND homeschool convention, Dad and Jonathan went to the State Republican convention, and yesterday we got back from Glendive Montana. And one of the most exiting things is spring is here! Here's some pictures of various things

This is me at a State park near there. We stayed at a family's ranch that had asked Dad to come and do a talk on the biblical concourse.
They use an airplane that they put together from a kit to check on their cattle. They have a lot of land to check on!
They flew us around on a ride for a while and then went and checked the water tanks for the cows and checked for cows that were having trouble calving.
This is some of the terrain they own. Pretty hard to get around without an airplane.
We saw this cow moose on our way to transplant seeds at Paulette's.
We also helped her put up her hoop house.

Peter

Eclipse of the Moon

2008-02-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

Hello there,

Last night there was an eclipse of the moon. We watched it and I took these pictures through our telescope! The shadow is just starting to cover the moon.

It's about half covered in these pictures.
Almost gone here.
And this is it completely in the shadow. That is about as red as I saw it. I went to bed around 9:30.
This is as good a picture as I could get with our camera without looking through the telescope.
This is our telescope. Steve Schadler gave it to us when he was cleaning house! Thank you Steve!
While I was trying to find the moon through the telescope I found this planet. We're pretty sure it is Saturn. Through the telescope you could see the rings around it! It isn't as clear in the picture as it is just looking through the telescope.

This is a video through the telescope.

Peter

Bottineau Caucus

2008-02-07T14:29:00.001-08:00

Hello,

The Bottineau caucus was a few days ago. We did some campaining for Ron Paul previous to the caucus and durring. The results at our caucus location were:

Huckabee 23 votes
Romney 23 votes
McCain 23 votes
Paul 33 votes

We stayed until it closed and they let us help count. That was kind of fun! We passed out Ron Paul slim-jims there to people as they came in. A lot of people said they were already planning on voting for him, but there was a lot of people not voting for him. We were the only people advertising a canidate there.

Here's a picture of me as you would come in (in the far back you can see a big 4x8' Ron Paul sign).
This is where they had you vote. We asked if we could put signs in the room where they vote and they said they didn't know why we couldn't.
Jonathan and Dad both gave a speech there. There was supposed to be speeches from 6 to 6:30 and then vote from 6:30 to 8 but they let people vote as people were talking. Jonathan and Dad were the only people to talk.
We got back late and checked the web as the caucus results state wide came in. I guess Ron Paul got third (21%), real close to John McCain (23%). Romney won. At least we did our part!

Peter

P.S. The caucus was at the Bottineau armory.

Neat Guitar Lick

2008-01-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a neat lick that I learned off the computer.

Peter

Home Sweet Home

2008-01-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here's an audio of me playing my version of the song "Home Sweet Home".

Peter