the big squeeze

the wind is back, and was blowing strong on tuesday night.  it blows from the north, along the foothills and straight across our property.  tango and amy sat nervously in the den after dark, looking at the windows as they rattled throughout the house.  we had avocado and olive limbs come down, much to the sheeps' delight (they managed to polish off all of the leaves in a couple of days).  otherwise, no real damage.  overnight temps dipped into the 40's, which means summer is officially gone (or is it?).

on wednesday morning, i found about a dozen large avocados on the ground - picked by the wind.  i snapped them up before any squirrels could take a bite.  they always manage to take a chunk out of the best avocados, before dropping them on the ground when they're too heavy to carry.  one year around this time, we had about 100 avocados blow down at once in the wind. one of our neighbors took a bag-full of them, and brought back some homemade guacamole for us to enjoy.  that was a good trade.

i bought a bale of grain hay for pattie during my usual feed store run on saturday.  when i delivered it, she gave me 14, 12-ounce bottles of pomegranate juice (and kept as many herself). she's nearly finished squeezing all of the fruit, and proceeded to share handwritten notes about her juicing escapade.  pattie is a record keeper - she keeps meticulous notes on everything from how many eggs are laid by her hens, to how many ounces of goat milk she gets, to how much juice comes from each pomegranate.  she has to write everything down to process it, which i love.  she's constantly experimenting with cheese-making and preserving.  her latest project is homemade kombucha, which she's now supplementing with shots of pomegranate juice.  you can ask her anything about animals (or almost anything, for that matter) and she'll have the answer within a short time.  if she doesn't know, she'll know someone who does, or she'll find it in an article from a magazine she's been saving.  we first met though an ad she tacked up at the feedstore, advertising kids for sale (the goat kind). she advised that goats were not a good choice for us, since they'd strip bark from all of our trees (and, basically, kill them).  after that, she invited me over to see her method of dehydrating tomatoes, and we've been friends since.  instead of borrowing sugar, she'll call to borrow a vial of tetanus antitoxin, powdered colostrum or an elastrator (and i'll have it!).

pattie took me to the goat pen to see her visiting buck.  he's on loan for free, and she's hoping he'll knock up her two does.  bucks become more attractive to females by urinating on themselves and generally becoming as stinky as possible.  he smelled like very strong goat cheese. apparently her does were smitten.  pattie will have her mexican friend palpitate the does in a few weeks to see if they're pregnant.  there's no way to know for sure without an ultrasound.

for us, rutting season came early this year.  i'm fairly sure our two breeding ewes are knocked up and we'll have lambs around valentine's day.  little becky hasn't been pregnant in the 2 years we've had her.  though the boys follow her around, i don't think she cycles and that's probably for the best.  our vet thinks she'd have a hard time lambing because of her small size.

a quiet sunday

it's a quiet sunday - warm and breezy.  relaxing on the sofa, with tango at my side and amy on my lap, after a full morning of chores.  i was up at dawn to open both coops and feed the chickens, brought out another bale of bermuda for the sheep, and picked and juiced some pomegranates. i made breakfast with fresh eggs and homegrown potatoes for james and me. we cleaned out the sheep shed with the tractor, and will let the ground dry in the sun before sprinkling with hydrated lime, and covering with shavings and straw.  i power-washed and disinfected the perches, with scooter at my side (i think he secretly enjoyed getting sprayed by the hose).  james built removable perches in the standard coop, which is genius.  the tops are covered with astro-turf (to help prevent bumblefoot) and i can take them out for a deep cleaning about once a month.  while i don't like cleaning the house much, i don't really mind cleaning the coop and the shed.

pattie came by yesterday and we picked most of the pomegranates and loaded them into her pickup.  when she saw how much fruit was coming off of the trees, she was apprehensive about taking all of it, so we left some for the sheep and chicks.  she'll spend the week juicing what she took, which is quite a chore.  the first year we were here, we set up a juicing area outside and juiced hundreds of pomegranates.  now, we rarely have the time, so it's a treat that pattie is doing the work for us.

i dug up the rest of the sweet potatoes, which yielded a disappointing harvest - about 12 potatoes from 5 plants.  the plants were so large, i expected a bigger crop.  i made soup with a few of the potatoes, some onion, an apple from isabel's tree, and some fresh rosemary and sage.  it was spectacular.  we have lettuce and baby bok choy, and beets and carrots look like they'll be ready soon.  the tomato plants are still hanging on in the late summer weather, and have a couple of small fruit growing.

the weather's still unusually warm, but temps are supposed to drop later this week.  we had the same phenomenon last year, and actually had two harvests of some of the figs.  all the fruit trees are on the wane except the citrus.  we have a crop of very small grapefruit that's not quite ripe, along with some navel oranges and tangerines.  last week's storm has left grass sprouting across some of the dirt in the back.  it's amazing what alittle water can do.

here comes the rain

i've been working non-stop for the past few weeks, with little time for more than necessary chores.  warmth turned cool, then came rain, and now we're back to summery temperatures. to the delight of the ducks,  there are still small ponds of water around the yard from this week's storm.  the sheeps' fleece was still damp this morning and they didn't hang out in the back as they usually do.  they stayed in the front and enjoyed some pomegranates as their coats dried in the sun.  the coop floor was wet so i shoveled out the bedding and put down new shavings.  everyone's relieved that the weather is clear, including me.

the rain was a reminder that the seasons are changing and soon it'll be time to winterize the coop and hutches.  i'll seal most of the coop windows with clear plastic to keep out the wind and keep in the warmth, as well as the front of the bantam hutches.  the bantam pen still needs to be finished before the worst weather hits.  it's huge, with a run that's about 30 feet long.  the new bantam coop is a palace - it has proper windows and screens, as well as a roof vent.  the chicks will feel like they've won the lottery when they're moved.  they're currently in smaller pen in the front that i built myself a couple of years ago (with very limited building skills).  they need more space, a pen with better drainage and a roof, and a proper coop. stephanie (a blind bantam hen) will have her own protected pen in the new setup, so she can scratch around like the rest of the chicks without fear.

the garden is still green with lettuce, tomatoes, a few broccoli and beets, and huge sweet potato plants.  i think i'm going to uproot the first potatoes this weekend, since there are a few yellow leaves (which i've read is a sign they're ready to harvest).  i've never grown potatoes before, so it's a new adventure.  the tops of the plants have overtaken at least a quarter of the garden, so i'm hoping the roots are equally prolific.

friend and neighbor pattie made a proposition to juice our pomegrantes, in exchange for borrowing our juicer and keeping some of the juice.  i think we'll take her up on the offer this weekend.  the fruit is ripe and ready and the juice freezes well.