Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

The day was cool and rainy, but that didn’t stop our visitors from coming out from St Cloud, MN.  Visitors?  I should say new farm customers.  Three younger fellows searched the Internet for goat meat and our farm came up in the search engines.  We were the closest.

These gentleman were transplants from Kenya, they said… two of them going to school at St Cloud State Univ. and the other at Mankato, MN – all cousins.  They wanted a nice goat or two for a BBQ.  It seems their grandparents would be visiting the United States for the very first time and the boys wanted to make it extra special for them.  These guys were as polite as could be and seemed very appreciative for letting them buy some of our animals for butchering.  Along with 2 goats, they also purchased 3 chickens and 8 dozen eggs.  All three guys mentioned how much better true, farm-raised food tasted, compared to the stuff one normally finds in the super-markets.  The one cousin mentioned he loved our farm, with the variety of animals.  He said it reminded him of the farm he grew-up, 10 years earlier.  He smiled as he said, “I feel at home here.”  He, too, had chickens that were allowed to free-range about the farm.  He expressed to me that he was looking forward to eating one of the chickens as soon as possible.  “The birds in the grocery store are soggy,” he said.  He also commented that farm birds have so much more flavor than the chicken found in the stores and even the eggs taste better.

When they guys were done butchering the goats and chickens, they cleaned-up their mess.  In fact, it was hard to tell they had even been here – not even a feather from the chicken could be found.  They were super neat.  It was a joy to speak with them while they were here.

I sure hope nobody comes out looking for eggs today – we’re sold out.

Carol, the girls and I headed south to the Granite Falls, MN area.  Our mission was to look at a Scottish Highlander bull that we’re interested in leasing for the summer.  We heard of this bull (name Curly) from Farmer Mike, who called me last week.  He asked if we’d found a sire for our four cows.  When I regretfully told him no, he mentioned he had gotten a phone call from a fellow farmer and among other things, this farmer asked if we had gotten a bull for the summer.  It seems the guy’s aunt had a Highlander that she may be willing to lease… and that’s how we got to this point.

The ranch we visited belonged to a gal named Terry (of Red Tail Valley Beef), who raises grass fed Angus/Highlander beef for direct marketing to [I believe] restaurants in the Metro area.  She was a lovely human being with a real passion for what she was doing on her ranch.  Her small spread was nestled in a river valley, with grass as far as the eye could see.  It was a wonderful site… like a mini version of the ranch on the old TV show Bonanza.  As we drove onto the place, Carol mentioned to me that she recognized Terry from an Organic Seminar we attended a year or two ago.  Anyway, after some light chit-chat, she escorted us to the pasture to “meet” Curly.  We first walked past some of her beef cows… a few with calves and then there was Curly.  WOW!  What a handsome little bull.  Immediately, we could tell how he came upon his name.  His forelocks were more curls than long hair.  He was dun in color.  I say he was a “little bull” only because when one thinks of bulls, we think of massive, almost monstrous creatures, but Curly was not that.  He’s a Highlander and as Highlanders should be… he was smaller in size, especially compared to Terry’s cows.

The size of Curly impressed me.  As most folks, who know me, know that I’m not a real big fan of large animals.  Big cattle are less efficient, harder to maintain if things get tough and they don’t dress-out as well as smaller cattle.  Large cattle have a higher ratio of bone and gut (waste) to meat than do smaller creatures.  Personally, I believe it’s easier to sell a small amount of beef than it is to sell lots.  If you want a half of beef, I think one can find room in the deep freeze for 300 lbs of meat much easier than 450 lbs.  Smaller is better. And Curly was small… just right for our cows.

After leaving the pasture, we talked about what she wanted from us for leasing her bull.  I asked if she still thought $25/cow was enough.  She thought it was fair… but after a few seconds of thought, she changed her mind.  She asked if we raised turkey… we said we did.  She mentioned how she would be interested in one of our free-range, heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving (instead of a store-bought bird).  She also thought some lamb-chops would be good too.  It seems as though $$$ is over-rated, but we all need food.  Score another point for team barter.  One could say we are trading beef for turkey and lamb.

After we got back from or little road trip, I headed north of the creek to do a few more hours of fencing.  I know have the wires on the east side of the paddock up… not all the insulators are on the posts yet, but the wires are there.  I also had time to finish all my H-post assemblies on the north side of the paddock.  I have more work to do on this side… like measure and mark the positions of the T-posts, install the insulators and then run my wires.  It sure is exciting to see this phase of fencing draw nearer to the end.  Once the perimeter is fenced in, I think I will let the cattle start grazing this area as I subdivide it into 3 smaller paddocks.  The grass right now is quite tall.  A little grazing over the entire pasture will do it some good.

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.

For our Palm Sunday brunch, Carol made this good tasting sausage and tator frittata.  I believe Carol mentioned that except for the cheddar cheese, this is an all homegrown dish.  Ingredients include: homemade lamb & pork sausage, frozen peppers, free-range eggs, potatoes, and onions.

Carol made this sausage and potato frittata

 If you want the recipe, feel free to email Carol.

We had another nice day… snow melting, mud all over and slipping & sliding for all.  Once again, I went north of the creek to retreive a round bale of hay for the cattle.  On my was home, before I could react, I literally slid the tractor down a hillside (sideways), where it rested up against the pasture fence.  I guess I would have simply driven through the fence, except that in this case, I had a steel post between the front and rear tire.  I tried to wiggle it out of the spot… but that was a no-go.  So I walked home.  We’ll pull it out tomorrow with the other tractor.

For supper, Carol made something I thought we’d never eat.  In the slow-cooker, she made goat.  We had our meal of goat, not because we want to be area’s foodie trend setters (see the article Is Goat the New Cow?), but because we butchered a goat who had broken it’s leg.  I will have to admit… it wasn’t half bad.  In fact, it was tender, moist and tasted much like lamb.  Between you, me and the dinner plate, I would rather eat goat than rabbit.

The following morning, Carol made the left-over goat, taters and carrots into a delicious hash.  It was pretty good.  A great way to serve leftovers.  After lunch, I took the other tractor out to where I had gotten stuck with the other one.  To my surprise, there was no snow by the tractor.  So  instead of attempting the pull the tractor from it’s temporary parking spot, I decided I would try to drive it out.  I backed it a little (so it was away from the fence) then I simply drove it home.  I didn’t need the other tractor at all.

It’s still rainy and cool here, but way warmer than it should be for this time of the year.  Typically, our daily high temp. is about 36°F with a average low of 18°F.  For the last few days and the forecast for the next week or so, the weather is well above normal (highs in the upper 30′s-40′s and lows above freezing).  Snow is disappearing daily, with only a few inches remaining.  Water and muck is the worst part of spring on the farm.  The farm yard is wet but the barn yard and outdoor pens are a saucy mix of wet hay, mud and manure.  Yes… I am aware that I used the term ‘saucy’.

The good news is that the wet weather didn’t stop Farmer Mike from coming over.  He was returning home from the butcher in Belgade, MN and said he had some meat for us.  If you know us, we love to barter and it seems as though Mike and his family like to barter back.  A few days ago, Carol dropped-off a few pounds of our pastured pork (since we had more than we needed).  We were just trying to be nice… You know… friends doing stuff for friends.  Anyway, it may have been Mike’s idea but his wife Karen insisted they give us some beef in exchange.  OK… no need to ruin a good friendship over farm vettles… “We’ll take some!“  So today… we got the goodie-bag of beef.  Not just regular beef, but some high quality organic beef.  Carol and I are still trying to figure out who got the best deal.  What sounds more expensive… organic beef or pastured pork?  Hmmm.