Farm Tour

The farm lies at the end of a dead-end road in eastern Everett, pretty close to Snohomish.

This is the view from the main gate, looking north toward the farm. Subsequent pictures in the series pan to the east. The dog in the last photo is Daia or something. Daia is obnoxious.







Daia is a big, cranky meanie that likes to bark and snarl at everybody and everything. She's not very popular among the interns.



This is Gabriel, or Gabe for short. Gabe is a big dog. Whenever I walk up to the gate, Gabe will hop up and lean on the fence to say hello. He's slouching in the photo with me. At full height, he's maybe an inch or two shorter than I am.





This is what he looks like when he says good morning. He's also heavy. I know this because he got loose one day and got into a fight with one of the other Anatolians. Of course, I decided to jump in the middle of it and break it up. Dogs and intern all survived with only minor scratches. I might need to rethink my instincts.



This is Gracie. She also is a big dog. She was a little cranky and protective on this day. Why? Puppies.





The little puddle of cuteness is eleven puppies. They're bigger now. And now that they drink their momma dry all day, every day, she's less cranky and more tired.



This is the south garden. We're still waiting to find out what we're going to grow here.





This is a chicken.



The Creamery. This used to be a garage, but now it holds no cars.



A little farther north up the driveway, looking north.



The goat milk refrigerator. People come to the farm to buy goat milk. At present, they pay $9 per half gallon.



More chickens.



The tractor.



The compost pile. This pile was a source of some frustration and tension for most of the people on the farm. It blocked access to the northwest pasture. It also made it difficult to feed the goats. This is the only picture we have of this massive mess. Why? Because I moved it. And I didn't think to take a "before" picture. So now it's gone. Turns out all that was needed to move a pile this big was an intern, a tractor, and twelve hours. I'll do a separate post on this later.



And this is a ton of pictures for a single entry, so I'll stop here and begin work on a part two.

Long Lost Blog

Alrighty then. Finally. Finally! A new post!
There's a lot to share, and I have several post topics lined up.

It was tough for the first couple weeks here. Acclimating to long hours of physical work takes some time. I feel like my strength and endurance are increasing. The time change helped, too. When I first got here, we were waking up before sunrise and working until sunset, racing to finish everything we'd started during the day. It's still dark when we wake up, but we finish work between 5 and 6, and we have some down time in the sun that we can use to decompress a little bit before we eat and head to bed.

There's a lot to do here. The farm is lovely, but it's been understaffed for long stretches. There are a number of tasks that find themselves designated as, "nice, but not urgent," and so they sit, waiting for somebody with the time and the inclination to get them going.

Here's a list of some of the things I'll be writing about in the near future; with at least one more coming this morning:

Tour of the Farm

The Animals

The Dogs

The Tractor

Farm Food and Wacky Cake

Building a Feeder

Moving the Compost

Digging the Fire Pit

The People on the Farm

Hunting Rats

Vinegar Keeps Mosquitos at Bay

Milking

Processing

Disbudding Goats

Egg Hunt

Upcoming Projects

These might not get written in the order listed, but I'll get to them all.

Farm life is quite something. So far, the internship has been more working and less learning, but as more interns arrive and more of the projects get done, we'll have much more time for the fun stuff.

Some Kid

The other day, there was this baby goat chewing on my finger. So i took a picture. The older goats don't goof around like this. The babies, however...



It was all fun and games until the kid wouldn't let go. But then the kid let go so then it was all fun and games again.

Birth of a Goat, Extended Version

Ah, springtime on a goat farm. Many of the does are pregnant and will give birth over the next few months. Today, I got to witness the arrival of not one, but two baby goats.

The first kid to be pop out was a little buckling. Jamian, the mama doe struggled a bit, as this was her first delivery.

One of the dogs was pretty excited, too. Seems like a nice afterbirth lunch is popular with the dogs. Usually, the doe will eat it, but if she doesn't, the dog will.

Tom and I were making lunch in the house when we got the call from Marcia, "if you want to see a goat being born, better hurry."

Naturally, Tom and I turned the spaghetti sauce on low and ran out to the barn. This is what we saw when we got there:

(if you want to skip straight to the bit where the kid comes out, begin with the fourth video.)




A few minutes later:



She got close in this one. She tried hard, didn't quite get the kid out, and then got up to walk around a little bit:



She didn't get very far when she gave one last mighty push and the kid's head cleared. At that point, Marcia grabbed the kid and yanked it out.



In this one, you can see the doe licking the baby to clean it up. Marcia steps in and sucks some of the gunk out of the kid's mouth.

Birth of a Goat

One of the does just had a kid. It feels like there's another one in there, so we'll check back in a few minutes.

I got video and pictures of the event and I'll post them up later today. For now, here's a picture of new mother and baby:



Tom and I are taking care of lunch duties and we're making Godfather Spaghetti. Yum.

Chicken Videos

I was curious to try out the video on my camera. Looks like it works.



And a straggler.

Day 2

So today I bottled milk in the morning. As soon as I have a shift that I'm not working, I'll take pictures of all of this. When dealing with the herd, you can have a clearly defined starting point and a clearly defined goal. Everything in between involves negotiating with goats and can take some unexpected twists.

After the milking we fenced off the new stretch of garden that Erin plowed yesterday. Turns out that the chickens and the little dogs can all fit through the holes. This means that the only thing we're keeping out of the garden is the people.

The really interesting bit came when we finished and Marcia enlisted our help in administering medication and vitamin supplements to the boys, or bucks, of the herd. Guess who doesn't like being medicated. It started off well enough. Each goat was to receive a oral dewormer, an injection for something, and a supplement administered atop a spoonful of molasses. The injection was the easiest part.

The oral stuff was administered via headlock. The goats all spit out what they could and smeared their molasses-covered faces onto whoever was holding them. Oh! An interesting factoid: goats don't have top teeth in the front of their mouths. I know this because I was bit several times in goaty protest. They do, however, have molars, top and bottom, in the back. I know this because I was bit several times in goaty protest. These guys are characters.

After we did the first few, the other bucks in the holding pen got wise to what was happening and decided that no more bucks would come out of the pen willingly. Naturally, the only thing to do was to go in after them. I've never tried to catch a goat before today. They're fast, agile, and skittish. When they're trapped in a 15x15 holding pen, backed into a corner, they come up with some pretty clever evasive maneuvers. Some of them had to be tackled and hauled out of the pen in a headlock. In the end, we got it done and the bucks are better for it. I've gotta get some pictures of these guys. Their goatees are pretty cool. Goatees! On goats! Anyways...

To answer one of the questions, yes. Each of the hundred plus goats on this farm has a name and a distinct personality. Marcia recognizes each of them by sight. I'll post the list of names one of these days.

And with that, I'm off to bed. Got a hot date in the morning.

- Steve

I've now helped with the milking three times. I'm amazed. The being amazed bit might wear off some day, but for now, I'm amazed. Being around goats is one of those things that isn't quite captured by reading about them.

They've got personality. They problem solve. They like to eat. They don't like to walk backwards. They sound like people when they sneeze. It's all pretty funny until I try to make a big ol' doe do something she doesn't want to do. Then it becomes hilarious. See, a goat has four cloven hooves and a low center of gravity and would rather walk 15 feet around a milk stand than back up six inches.

Most of them enjoy being milked. Except when they don't. Maybe they like eating and because they're being fed, they put up with being milked. Sometimes. Most of them anyway.

We open the door and they funnel into the room, eight at a time.



Then they hop up onto the milking platforms, except when they don't want to. Sometimes they stare at each other.



Sometimes they stare at me.



Anyways, we take the milk, fill them full of snacks, and then we send them out the other door. Except when they don't want to go out. Or when they want to come back in, like the one in this picture. Sometimes they get in and we have to walk them around the room and out the door again. And they'll try to eat anything they can reach.



A lot of the time, it looks like this and it's pretty mellow.



Some of the gals don't like being milked and get all kicky. Some are quite happy to help. They'll lift a leg to let us at the milk or stand wide in a good milking stance. It's pretty awesome and I find myself laughing a lot.

Oh yeah, this is what it looks like right outside the door. It's deeper in some places. This is mostly mud.



One of the things I'm most surprised about is the way the farm smells. Anybody who has ever smelled a cow dairy might be able to guess what I thought this operation might smell like. The farm doesn't smell like that at all. Goat poop is so awesome that the chickens eat it, or at least peck it open and snack on the tasty contents.

That reminds me. Erin hopped onto the tractor and plowed up a bit of the yard today so we can extend the garden.



After she finished, the chickens moved in to eat all the newly accessible bugs. This is a view from the back porch.



Chickens would be kind of scary if they were ten or fifteen feet tall. I wonder if they'd eat people. My guess is that they would. Now I'm glad that chickens are little. And I'm rambling so I'm going to bed. I hope I don't dream of being eaten by big chickens.

- Steve

Day 1

I'm in Everett, north of Seattle, off the interstate, across the valley, on a farm down a slow, dead-end road with a dog on it. I'll take some time to document this place after I synchronize my surroundings. The farm has been a whirlwind of fantastic activity since my arrival. I got out of the car and met Marcia, who took me on a tour of the property. She showed me all the chickens wandering around, the huge Anatolian shepard dogs, and the goats. I arrived at 3pm, and took the opportunity to watch the afternoon milking. I watched as the milkroom handled 60 does and collected several gallons of milk. It's an impressive operation. I'm glad it isn't done by hand; seems like that'd take all day.

After the milk room was cleaned out, we headed into the kitchen to get a bite before heading to bed. One of the deals with this job is free room and board, and around here, board means we have free access to anything and everything in the house. I opted for some summer sausage, cheese, tomatoes and avocado, washed down with some raw, unpasteurized cow milk. I'd never had that before. It was rich, creamy, and delicious. I wonder if I'll ever be able to go back to the milk I was drinking before.

I mentioned to Marcia that I'd only had goat milk once. That was the stuff we got from the store on that cross-country trip to North Carolina. Marcia kind of laughed and went to the milk processing room. She returned with a half-glass of fresh, raw goat milk and offered it to me. Folks, this stuff was fantastic. Night and day better than the stuff I had in Arizona. Winter prices reach $20/gallon or more, so we won't be drinking much until all the pregnant does have their kids. I'm told that people drink more milk in winter than during summer months so by then, demand and prices will fall, and most of the does will be in milk. This will provide a huge surplus and much of that will be turned into cheese. Word is that we'll be able to make cheese with cow milk in the meantime.

There is a lot going on at any one time. Today, in addition to the milking, I learned how they process and bottle the milk. Today for lunch, Craig, the most senior intern, made pizza (including the dough) entirely from scratch. After lunch, I watched Erin (another intern) use the tractor to plow up a section of yard, which will be used to expand the garden. I'll get a chance to try my hand at tractoring when we re-do the pasture. Oh, it looks like I forgot to mention the little kid that was disbudded after lunch. Disbudding is a fairly heart wrenching procedure by which horns are removed from young bucklings. It's rough, but it's necessary, and preferable to having bucks tear each other to shreds with growing horns. There's a lot of reality around here. Not all of it is pretty, but it's all beautiful. Does that make sense? Something about the synergy of this place feels incredible. Even down to the chickens pecking through fresh goat droppings. This farm is amazing. I'm really glad I'm here. I'm off to go help with the afternoon milking.

- Steve

Hello World!

Howdy, Folks!

It looks like the blog is up.
The plan is to be at the farm at around noon on Sunday the 28th.

That's all for now. I'm off to bed to count goats.

- Cheez