Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

Some of you know that Carol grew up as a ‘Townie‘.  With that said, more folks know her as a farm gal.  But being on the farm for only 2 years, there are many experiences left to explore.

The last 2 days, Carol has found herself outside the ring of a couple local-ish livestock auctions, looking for goats & chickens.  It seems we are selling more livestock and poultry directly to our customers than we think we can replace sustainably.  It’s a good position to be in [business-wise] but we want all of our customers (present and future) to be able to buy the meat they want and still have a good selection in which to do so.  So, Carol has been looking primarily for more meat goats as well as a dairy goat or two… the last few weekends, we have been selling-out of raw goat milk too.

Well, today, Carol found a few things at one of the auctions she attended.  She did find some goats, but only dairy goats.  These goats will help improve her herd as she intends to cull some of her lesser quality milkers.  She also purchased a few more layer hens – yep… we have been selling out of eggs as well.  We have standing orders for 6-8 dozen and we haven’t been able to meet the demand.  My question to Carol, after she got home, was how does she know if she got hens that were actually going to lay for us.  It seems that when the hens lay eggs on the way home from the auction, chances are the hens are in good working order.  We’re both happy.  BTW:  You can buy our fresh eggs in Kerkhoven from Kristine at Inspiring Path Alternatives.

Another thing she bought was this little tool.   Or maybe I should say “little tools”.  She bought 2 cases of them.

Tote-N-Cut bale handling/feeding device

She may have paid too much for them… who knows.  But, we have one down in the barn, awaiting to be used.  It looks like it would be a handy thing to have around, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.  If you want one, contact Carol.  She’s selling them for only $2/each.  I tried to find some information about them on the Internet, but came-up empty.  As you can see, they are/were locally made… the question is “When?”

Carol also bought a Home Health brand home milk/juice pasteurizer, if for no other reason than to give folks a chance to experience or taste our farm-fresh dairy products without the worry of things made from raw milk as seeming weird.  Believe it or not, but some folks still think milk comes from a carton and not a cow or goat.  The pasteurizer Carol bought is a low temp unit.  Instead of heating the milk to 165°F for 15 seconds, it heats it to 145°F for 30 minutes.  The lower heat process does not kill all the helpful/healthful micro-organisms, like the beneficial pro-biotics… just the bad (if the milk were not handled properly).  The price of this handy-dandy appliance was 50¢, minus the 25¢ worth of puzzles she sold [that came with the pasteurizer].  Once home, we tested the Home Health pasteurizer and it seems to work perfectly.  If you would like to taste some pasteurized goat milk or goat milk cheese, let Carol know before heading out to the farm.  Of course, our goat milk soap does not need pasteurized milk – soap is soap (even if it is weird).

Carol knew what to do.  She started canning jam.  She had a few flats of strawberries and some stalks of rhubarb that needed to be preserved so she made 9½ pints of strawberry-blackberry jam, and the same amount of strawberry-rhubarb jam.  She then made some cheddar cheese from our raw goat milk.

I, on the other hand, went outside in between rain showers to do a little of this, then a little of that.  One of the tasks was to pound a single post in the vineyard.  Carol and I decided it was time to reinvest some of our time back into the grapes.  We want to string high-tensile wire between the posts for the vines to cling to.  We’re hoping to have better luck with the grapes this year.  Last year we were hit by hail.  The storm took the vines down to the ground.

Tonight, Carol and a friend went to the livestock auction in Hutchinson, MN.  Carol set out to buy some meat goats, if there were some available at an affordable price… we’ve been selling quite a few goats here at the farm and felt we want to give our customers a good selection in which to choose from.  This will be Carol’s first livestock auction experience.

I think it was our first hot day of the summer.

Knowing it was going to be a tad-bit warm today, I headed to the pasture early, to do some more fencing… I really wanted to get this first long run, north of the creek, done.  I realize it was a Sunday – the day of rest, but I like fencing and haying on Sundays.  It’s so relaxing… usually.  Today was a little like work, but I enjoyed it none-the-less.

Earlier this spring, I tore out some of last year’s temporary, pasture fencing to make way for permanent, high-tensile fencing.  I had all the posts and the bottom wire in place, so running 3 more wires was about all I needed to do yet… that and add a few more insulators on one end.  I did so w/o problem.  By noon, all the posts had the needed insulators and I had another wire in place.  The temp was already in the 80′sF.  When I arrived at the house, I was so thirsty.  I… needed… something… cool… to… drink.  With hydration the only thing on my mind, I barely noticed how warm it was in the house.  Once I recovered my senses, looked at the thermostat on the wall… HUH?  87°F.  And Carol was standing in the thick of it, creating even more heat – she was canning chicken and chicken broth… while doing dishes.  I could also see clothes n the line outside.  Sheesh!

I drank some more Kool-Aid and grabbed a snack before heading back out to the pastures.  I finally finished for the day around 4PM.  I would have finished earlier, but along the creek, 30% of my posts are 4″ wooded posts.   Each wood posts receives 2 staples… so that took awhile.

Why wood posts?  The soil along the creek is much softer than the soil farther in.  I guess I feel the 8′ wood posts, being longer and wider than an average T-post, holds better.  I realize that the untreated, cedar posts will eventually rot, but the security of knowing they won’t be easily moved has some value.  And… not all of the wood posts will fail at the same time, so replacing on or two each year, after 20 years, won’t be such a big deal.

Anyway, that run of fencing is done.  Approx. 2400 ft of 4 strand, high-tensile, fencing was completed and another 2800 ft to go.  I was hot and exhausted… my T-shirt was soaked with sweat… and I had about 3 dozen wood-tics crawling on me and another dozen or so chewing on my flesh.  It was time for a nice cool shower… and some more Kool-Aid.  Carol was still chugging away with her canning, dishes, laundry and now… cheese making.  It seems she also found time to make a strawberry pie (with home-made pie crust).  By this time, the house was hitting 90°+F… It was hot.

As Carol started her last batch of chicken broth, we had some farm visitors.  A local gal and her husband were looking to purchase a few chickens.  I think the wanted them more for aesthetics, but thought a few fresh eggs would be good too.  It turns out, they are raw milk drinkers as well.  They asked if we would be willing to supply them with milk.  Carol let them know that we would be more than willing to do so.  It seems they travel more than 50 miles for their goat milk and would like to buy from a farm nearer to them – we would be about 30 miles closer.

All-in-all, it was a very HOT and productive day.  I’m glad it’s over.