I like to think that most stuff should last a long time. That is not the way it is with technology, though. Yes, the knowledge base is increasing exponentially surrounding media and data, but not everyone wants to keep up. I don't. There was a time when I, being an early adopter (marketing term for first one to buy new things on the market) had an ipod before anyone else. I hardly used it though, but I had it. I do not listen to music much, never did. I played the piano (badly) and sang (worse) every night for many years as my form of relaxation. No television was in my house, again, not something that I ever really paid much attention to. I do not have enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done, let alone have time to watch TV. My family was not a big television watching family, either, choosing rather to do something instead of sit and watch. I am still like that. 

So, I have not had many cell phones actually. I want the phones to last forever. My parents had a Telus phone that they rented from Telus for over 30 years, the same phone. They mistakenly believed that they had to rent the phone so the repair work would be covered, should it be necessary. The phone never needed anything. It was an old dial phone. When I tried to stop the rental, I was informed, even though they had paid a hundred times more than the phone's value in rent over the years, that I had to return the phone. Telus would instantly discard it, but I had to return it. If the technology had not changed, that phone might still be in use today. I want my cell phone to be that way. 

I bought a Samsung when I moved here. Today I tried to get a battery for it, but they no longer make batteries for that model. It is too old. I dropped my new phone in the sink accidentally when I was swatting flies. This time of year on the farm is terrible and this is the worst year I can recall for those varmints. I hate them. So I swatted the phone into the sink and there was, of course water in it. That particular Samsung is built so that it can not be taken apart. Then I could not blow dry it with a hairdryer like I did with the last one that fell into the water in the dead of winter. Then I put the phone in a bag of rice and it worked again the next day. 

My internet comes via tethering the phone to the computer and has for quite some time. Today the only provider I can get consented to hook my internet up. In the meantime, I got a cheap phone, an LG, for one hundred and fifty dollars, plus an activation fee and my sim card was transferred. But the LG does not sent photos to the imac computer and I spent several days with my last phone to resolve that issue. I will have to call LG support and see if it can be fixed or not. 

Wouldn't it be great if we did not have cell phones? I use my phone for phoning and receiving calls and taking pictures - that is it. If I was not running a farm and bed and breakfast, I would not even have a cell phone most likely, though it did come in handy when I was trapped in the skid steer. But, like the old days, I am an oldy and although I do not dislike technology, I do not need to spend close to a thousand dollars every year on updating to a new phone. This LG is good. I bought a case and screen protector. The case is not waterproof. Why? The salesperson explained that the LG is only expected to last 6 months before the owner upgrades it. Hmmm. What do you prefer?  A long lasting phone or keeping up with technology ?

I was feeling rather smug about predators and everyone else's problems, when I had none. My beautiful livestock guardian dogs were taking care of any potential problems and nothing got past them, except a fox took a baby goat last year. 

Well, that fox had kits and they are eating me out of the farm. I have lost 10 adult chickens, lots of chicks that the mother hens have hatched and about 20 of the chicks from eggs I purchased and had hatched by some one who does that for a hobby. The adolescent chicks are locked up, but I really do not have a run for the chickens. They tend to stay in the middle barn yard, except when they have chicks and then they want to take them away from the other chickens. That is when trouble starts. Jade and Jenna do watch the birds and would not allow a fox in the barnyard, but the fox is so clever. He comes downwind from either side of the farm and is so quiet, he sneaks within 10 feet of the sleeping dog, grabs his prey and is gone. The only prey that made enough noise to get all the dogs after it was the screaming baby rabbit. There are lots of rabbit burrows on the farm from last fall's escapees, who are now adults. The adults have been dispatched now that the babies are old enough to live on their own, but the fox has other plans. 

A hunter came today. I told him he could have 2 rabbits since he said he was short on food for his family. He shot 2 yesterday and took them with my permission, but he gave them to his friend who loves rabbit because he knew there were more. Well, I was not too pleased with that and allowed him to take two for himself, but the rabbits were between 16-18 pounds each. So he had 4 and I got 2. If I was selling the rabbits at only $5 a pound that would be a dressed 10-12 pound rabbit at $50 each. I think he was more than well compensated for coming to hunt the fox, which he never did see. He said he will come back tomorrow and I can only hope he finds it so it stops eating my animals. There was a little confusion in how many rabbits he could have and I won't do that again. He was very nice though. 

I have a paintball gun bought as a gift from my son, but the gun was in the house that had the flood and is packed away. I have seen the fox numerous times and would shoot it with the paintball gun or the pellet gun that the other son gave me. I will have to get the pellet gun and try my best since the paintball gun is gone someplace. 

My hope is not to kill the fox, but for one or two of the dogs to get a whiff of it and hurt it enough so that it never wants to come back again, but not badly enough that it does not recover. I will continue to advertise for a trapper to come and get the fox. I believe there may be more than one hunting at the Fat Ewe Farm and although I do not wish them harm, I wish they felt the same about my animals. I might just be making quick pens for all the birds and locking them up really fast. Drat!

It is often said, there are no mistakes. What God creates is perfection in his eyes, though man may not see it as such. Yet, I have observed strange things in the animal world. For example, a chicken that is a little different at birth is often pecked at even until death. Is that Mother Nature's way of ensuring survival of the fittest? I had a duck that was a little off too, and she was shunned by all the other ducks and never included. And remember Rudolph, just because his nose was different, never got to play with the other reindeer? 

So, maybe while we want to think everything is perfect just as it is, through observation it is not that way in the animal world. Today a very strange event transpired. The beautiful grey and black Angora female kindled, or had her babies. I think there were only two, for that is all I found in the nest and there were none others anyplace to be seen. Two is very odd for a rabbit, but it is her first litter. But, when I looked closely at the babies, one was cold, though he was in the nest. He was dead so I picked him up and nearly dropped him when I looked at his face. 

In the place where there should have been a cute rabbit nose was a proboscis, huge for the size of the bunny. He was holding a straw in his paws. I stared at the face and since the birth was so recent, I am assuming he was stillborn. But I am still amazed and in shock when I think of that face. What a cruel joke Mother Nature would have played on that innocent little life. What a blessing he did not make it. Would we say the same if he was a deformed human baby? 

The Fat Ewe Farm is a rare breeds permaculture farm. Most of the animals on the farm are not "regular" everyday livestock, but they are unusual, rare or sometimes endangered breeds. The idea was to promote the breeds and interest others in helping them stay alive, rather than go extinct in favour of huge monolithic critters that produce more; more meat. more babies, more money. 

The Jacob sheep may very well be one of the oldest sheep on the planet. They are virtually unimproved, too, which means they are hardy, forage well, subsist on marginal feeds, have easy lambing, raise twins on a regular basis with no issues, and are naturally pest resistant. No sheep is truly pest resistant, but they can manage their pests without human intervention for the most part, IF they are given the proper growing room and feed. Sheep are ruminants and were never meant to eat grain. Primitive sheep, like the Jacobs, do just fine on grass hay and pasture with no supplemental feeding and certainly no need for grain. 

I have not eaten a Jacob, though their meat is reported very delicious. This fall, if the 75% Jacob ram lamb has not sold, I may get my first chance though. He is never going to be a true Jacob, though he looks just like one with his black and white coat and body build. His mother is Karakul/Jacob and his father was a purebred Jacob. Even when bred 'up' that is continually bred to a Jacob so the offspring percentages increase, the sheep are never considered Jacobs. 

Some people have been buying the Jacob sheep and exporting them out of Canada to the middle east. They believe that is where they belong because they are mentioned in the bible..Jacob's black and white sheep. But that is leaving Canada with a very shallow gene pool and with the US border being closed to importing sheep at this time, the exporting of the Jacobs is detrimental to the breed here. So I have acquired two new Jacobs, little ewe lambs from the BC interior. I now have 4 purebred Jacob ewes and 2 purebred Jacob rams. There is a slight possibility that I may get 1 or 2 ewe lambs from Ontario later this summer, too. The man who purchased my Karakuls has Jacobs and if the timing works, may be able to bring along two little ewe lambs when he comes to pick the Karakuls up. 

Then I will breed all the Jacobs to one ram and the offspring to the other. By then, hopefully, I can acquire a third Jacob ram and breed the third generation to him, while still breeding the first and second generation to the original rams respectively and increasing the Jacob flock considerably. There is a market for the sheep and as they become scarcer, that market will improve even more so. In the meantime, I am delighted with the new arrivals. They are pretty cute, right?

Pretty much everyone I know loves pork, and who doesn't love bacon? Large pigs grow fast and eat a lot. The Fat Ewe Farm had Berkshire hogs a few years back and started a lot of folks in this area with their own Berkshires. They are easy going pigs, good natured and not too hard on fences. And their flesh makes great pork meat for human consumption. But one pig is a lot to eat, so I gave them up. I had to buy grain for them and the cost to raise the pigs was almost more than if I bought some one else's pig already cut and wrapped. The problem is I was never sure what the other pigs were fed and that made a difference to me. 

So last year I got some pot belly pigs, Clara and Wilbur. They have had quite a few litters together, though the ravens got one litter except for one and she had one group in the dead of winter and they froze. She was inexperienced then and scattered them out of the nest she so carefully made. 

A friend had two Meishan pigs that their family had outgrown which she offered to me and they are part of the pigs on the farm now. Meishan sows have 20 teats and can raise that many piglets easily. They were imported to Canada from China to increase the numbers of piglets that our North American sows had, but the cross breeding didn't work. The crossed sows were not able to support large numbers of piglets so then some of the Meishan pigs were sold in markets around the country. I am not sure how my friend acquired them. They are mid sized black pigs with floppy ears and when they are babies they have lots of wrinkles. 

The Meishans are bred to the Pot Belly Boar. I hope to sell the piglets, dressed whole, for Christmas dinner alternatives. Long ago, especially in Britain, piglet was served for Christmas, whole on a platter, but roast to perfection of course. After butchering the Pot Belly piglets at 4 months of age and eating the delicious pork, I would not like to go back to the large pigs again. It is that good. There is no bacon on a pot belly though, but Meishans have excellent bacon so perhaps the crosses will too. Clara is pregnant and due in a few weeks. This litter will be ready for butcher in October and the Meishan cross piglets should be ready in November or December depending on when they were bred. Perhaps I can also start some small farms back to raising smaller hogs for family use. 

Today a third breed of pig joined the farm, the Ossabaw hog. They have long thing pointy snouts and seldom exceed 200 pounds. The breed was likely a Spanish pig that was left by sailors on the Ossabaw Islands off Georgia in the USA where it became feral and survived in poor conditions. With good feed the pigs develop gross amounts of fat around the belly, but the meat is considered the best for charcuterie and is highly sought after. The pigs do well in a forage based operation. 

On the Fat Ewe Farm, the pigs have pasture to root through and grass to eat as well as their barley feed. I am thinking of allowing them in the bush by the creek where they can root around and find things they like to eat. That is much healthier than sitting in the grain bucket for their food. It will be interesting to see or rather taste, the difference between the Pot Belly, Meishan and Ossabaw pig meat. Would you like to try some? 

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What does it really take to paint with a bent to the environment? 

I am using all Bioshield clay paints, made in Germany, so they do have a bit of a carbon footprint, but they are simply made from earth pigments, water and clay, so they have no real impact on the environment at all. I suppose the mining of some of the pigments may not be appreciated by the Earth, digging holes in her for coloured rocks. And the clay quarries are robbed of their natural beautiful white clay, but the elements are returned to the Earth once their lives are spent, so nothing is totally lost. 

But, there is more. Night after night, I wash the roller and brush, the tray and the paint cup. I am not throwing out these items as most modern painters do. Yes, it is a pain and takes time to wash the roller and buckets and brushes and trays every night, about a half hour of time. Though the clay paint can be washed easily down the household drain and it does not upset the septic system on the farm, I am careful to ensure any large amounts are put elsewhere. 

So, for painting a home to be truly eco friendly, wash the tools and utensils after use. Use actual bioelements instead of commercial chemical paints. Even my woodstain is from Germany and is made of plant oils and pigments as well, but it does have turpenes in it, and cannot be washed down the drain to the septic where it may disturb the flora and fauna of the system. One nice thing, is that the paint also washes out of clothing. It cannot be washed and grease will stain it once on the walls. In bathrooms and kitchens it must be glazed. Yes, there is a plant based clear glaze too! So the bathroom and kitchen work areas will be glazed to make the walls washable and wear better. 

Clay paint is a soft matte finish, warm in earthy colours from blues and greens to the intense brick red that I just used in the master suite. It is rather stunning and is quite a brown brick red. Sexy? 

I have only two rooms to finish, the glazing in a couple of small areas and then the kitchen cabinets and voila, the home is done. It is very tiring for me since I have been doing it at night when my daily chores and busy farm life is complete. Now, I have to go close the sheep and chicks in for the night before my soothing bath in the clawfoot tub because tonight, I am taking an evening off and not painting. Pictures will come when I am complete. Stay tuned!

Now that I have experimented with my all purpose recipe I want to give it to you to do the same.
I was attempting to create one recipe for all types of soap.
The paste alone can be used for bar soap, or with a little saturated salt brine to make a hard bar.
The paste can be diluted with glycerine for a transparent soap, but it is soft, so I would suggest not using KoH if your goal is transparent soap. I used half glycerine/half soap paste by weight.
For the cream soap, the paste was weighed and 1/4 of that weight of glycerine added and 1/4 weight of hydrosol (you could use water, or a herbal infusion or other). It was then whipped. I added some Australian red clay for slip.
For the whipped soap, well, it deflated, however, I think it might stay up with cocoa butter. I just haven't tried it yet.

This recipe is for a huge batch. Maybe cut it down to just 10% of this amount for your first shot at it. I would love to see what you can create.

Water 50% 4.586 pounds
Super Fat 0%
Macadamia Nut Oil 6.25% .575 pounds
Lard 20.91% 1.918 pounds
Beef Tallow 16.92% 1.552 pounds
Canola Oil 11.44 % 1.049 pounds
Sunflower Oil 14.42 % 1.323 pounds
Coconut Oil (92) 19.23% 1.764 Pounds
Castor Oil 10.82 % .0992 pounds

I used 60% KoH
and 40% NaoH
to the lye water I added 1 c sugar

and 8 oz of lanolin to the oil mix (as the super fat though most of lanolin is not saponified, though it would take up any unused lye)

The lye/oil/water mixture was stick blended and left. It gelled completely in the pot without heat (most likely due to the added sugar). The paste was sequestered for a month prior to the first experiment. Three months later, the paste is almost translucent white and can be melted easily to pour into molds. It is stable enough to use on its own and is a gentle, bubbly soap. It can be hand molded into pucks or balls quite easily too, without melting.

If you do try this, please send pictures! Enjoy.
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Here at the Fat Ewe Farm, it is seldom that the birds are ever artificially incubated. Once in a season, perhaps, if there is an opportunity, some eggs may be added to a running incubator, but generally, the mothers do the work for me. Last year, I gave a lot of duck eggs to a friend to incubate and most of them hatched. Then I had to keep them in a brooder and next a brooding hut, until they were old enough to fend for themselves. Most of them ended up in the freezer. It was not a good year to sell ducklings apparently. 
This year I have been asked for ducklings and ducks, go figure, and I did not have any to sell. But there are 9 in the granary with their mother who hatched them, another 3 Muscovy ducklings with their mother who is still sitting on her nest, another 3 at least sitting on nests and two turkeys and some hens sitting too. One mamma hen hatched 10 early in the spring and managed to keep 5 of them, who are now 2 months old. Another hen has two only and a third has just 1, but the black Ameraucana hen has 9. So basically, without input from me, except to keep the babies safe with the mothers when they are first hatched, the number of birds on the farm increases drastically by the end of summer. Most of the hatchlings go into the freezer and the self perpetuating flocks continue on their own. I select the ones to replace some of the older ones and the majority of roosters and extras are then meat for the winter. 

This year, I did get purebred Ameraucana chicks, cream legbar chicks and a few white Chanteclers from a breeder in Calgary, or rather, I got the eggs and the chicks were hatched in Bonnyville by a person who hatches in the spring for a hobby. The chicks are almost ready to be let out in the day time where they will learn from the older birds. The goslings are released, but they grow and mature so much faster than any other birds. One gosling, which I think is a purebred Sebastopol, does not yet fit with the gaggle, so is remaining with the three turkey poults and is happier there than out. The older goslings picked on this one. He is a little different than they are and somehow they seem to know it. 

The following year, when the birds are adults, the trios of Ameraucanas and some Cream Legbar roosters will be sold. I have been giving the eggs to the foodbank, so only want to keep about 10 chickens in total, and far fewer geese, and just pairs or trios of the ducks. With organic grain at 40 cents a pound, there has to be a real purpose and return from the birds. Since no one seems to want to pay $5 for organic eggs here right from the farm, I only need enough chickens to lay eggs for me and a couple of friends. That, my friends, is the reality of the self perpetuating flocks. Culling hard is a necessity. People do not buy birds in the fall here because they don't want to winter them over, but they clamour for them in the spring, but at cheap prices. It is a hard lesson with the birds. Right?

I know it has been too long since I have written a blog. I apologize. 
It is late when I come from painting the other house, readying the bed and breakfast for guests. There is so much work to do and the budget was not overly large from the insurance claim, though it is not entirely settled yet. 

I painted the downstairs but have to do a second coat on the rec room and paint the new sink cabinet. The flooring will come next week and it will be great. Once I paint the house, I have to stain 1 x 4s for the baseboards and door casings. The ceiling upstairs is pine, and I am not sure just yet what colour I will do, but it will be a wood stain. 

The paint I have been using is 6 years old, Bioshield , made in Germany, but from my green lifestyle store in White Rock. When I closed the store I kept the paint and wood finishes and have been using them. This paint is organic clay paint, made from clay , earth pigments and water basically. It does not adhere to semi gloss latex very well and sanding is recommended first, but I could not see sanding the entire house. I just have to do two coats of the lighter colours. The colours are cool greens, sky blue and light yellow so far. I have mixed some of the paints together and created new colours, however; they all coordinate beautifully and the clay finish is a soft warm non shiny flat painted surface - lovely! The best part is there is no odor because there are no chemicals in the paints and it is non toxic, so clean up is simply washing in the kitchen sink.  It does not stay on my skin either and clothes can be washed and the paint will come out. 

The paint does not wear particularly well and is not washable, but seriously, when did you last wash your walls? In areas, like the bathroom and kitchen, I will add a clear glaze to ensure that water will not damage the paint. Grease is the worst culprit, because the clay absorbs it. Grease can be sanded out, that is the paint with the grease on it, sanded and then new paint reapplied to that spot. 

I cannot decide whether to paint the master bedroom a soft clay red or light aqua yet. I am leaning towards the red with a pinkish bathroom. The rest of the house is mostly blues and greens in the public areas and the master suite should be unique and special. 

I have also been fighting with my new phone, trying to get it to communicate with the imac computer. That took hours and hours on the phone and chat with both Apple and Samsung, but it is working finally. Whew. 

The garden is planted except for a few things, the window boxes are painted and ready to plant, the screen doors are ordered and progress is being made. The screen doors for the houses are really neat. They have a removable screen and window, so in the summer it is a screen door and in the winter it is a storm door. I would love to make my porch a screened porch one day so I could actually sit outside and not fight mosquitos. 

And, I have sent an inquiry to a BC company that raises insects that lay eggs in flies and the larvae grow in the flies and kill them.  I cannot stand the flies this year with the perfect weather for them and the mosquitoes are out in droves. I don't think they have any mosquito killing insects, but the fly killers are for me if they are affordable. 

So, I have not forgotten. Life just got extremely busy all of a sudden with a deadline for painting and the gardens to be planted in addition to the regular every day chores. What do you think? Should the master bedroom be a soft clay red or a light light blue? 

No farm should be without some goats. They are much different than sheep, more comical and much more mischievous and adventurous.  They get into trouble somewhat, like today when Bonnie thought the caraganas were greener on the other side of the fence, so she jumped over it. She had already climbed on it and stretched the wire down, so it was an easy jump. Fortunately, I was there watching the whole time and quickly came to the rescue, shooed her back in where she belonged and fixed the fence temporarily. I watched as she tried to pull the wire down again so she could jump out, but it held that time, so she lost interest.

I have tried Kiko meat goats, Nubian dairy goats, Cashmere, which is basically a Spanish goat that grows a heavy down coat in the winter, Angora goats and my favourites, Nigerian Dwarfs. 

Here is what I have to say about the breeds. 

If you like soft mohair, Angora goats are very dual purpose, however; I found that the mothering instincts and a few others, like where to forage for food, were bred out of them in favour of fibre. One of my Angoras was a good mother though, so I kept her and she is better at following the herd to eat with them. The kids take a long time to gain confidence to go with the herd though, so she does not go far for the first two months. Angoras need to be shorn twice yearly or the fibre will mat into a terrible useless mess and have to be cut off anyhow. They do not shed. Angora goat meat is considered a delicacy in the Middle East and is quite sought after. The animals do flesh out very well and have lots of milk. The meat, I must say, is fabulous. 

Cashmere goats are basically good hardy dual purpose goats, good mothers, have great instincts and will naturally shed the cashmere if it is not brushed or combed from them. I have not eaten cashmere goat meat, only Angora, so I cannot comment on that. 

Kiko goats are big sturdy goats originating from New Zealand. If my Kiko buck does not sell, I have a mind to breed him to the Angora to see what sort of goat is produced. It should have fibre like Pygora  (Pygmy/Angora) or Nigora (NIgerian/Angora) crosses which is very spinnable, yet sheds naturally if not harvested. There are 3 grads to the cross fibre, A, B and C according to the curl and guard hairs present. The Kiko and the Angora have good milk and the Kikos are great mothers. That cross might be worth looking into . The Kiko doe I have was sold to me as a breeding doe but she has fish teats or nipples teats that split into two nipples, which at first confused the kids, but in no time they got the hang of nursing. It is a hereditary trait and the bucklings should be sold as meat goats only. 

I did have only two Boer goats and did not find them particularly appealing for some reason. The buck was big and pushy and the doe was not very friendly having come from a commercial herd. 

The Nubians are good mothers, gentle, personable and excellent milkers, but hard for me to keep healthy. I am not sure it is just these two Nubians or all Nubians or because I live where winter is very cold. That is the time they seem to go downhill fast, though they do pick up on pasture in the summer. I would try them again if I lived somewhere warmer just for their sweet natures. 

But, my favourites are the Nigerians. They are smaller, smarter, more playful, have triplets or quads and can raise them all with their copious amounts of rich milk. My does consistently have quads and although they can raise them all, I usually sell two as bottle babies, because it is too hard on the mother to manufacture milk for four babies and it takes her body condition down. One of my does, Daphne, can easily raise 3 kids though, without losing condition. They are easy to keep, small to handle, friendly and come with blue eyes sometimes. The true Nigerian Dwarf has a long lean body that is well proportioned so that if you looked at a picture of the goat without surrounding to verify the size, you could imagine the goat to be regualar sized, unlike true Pygmy goats, which to me look like tanks on short legs. I love them too, but they are hard to find. What people call Pygmy goats are nowhere near what they really are. To the uneducated, any small goat is a Pygmy. 

I am trying to sell all the goats except the Nigerian Dwarfs to cut down my workload and feed costs. Because they are smaller, they eat less of course. They do grow a double coat for winter too, which keeps them warmer, so they eat less than a single coated animal who must eat to stay warm. The Angora may be the last to leave or maybe she will stay. Bred to a Nigerian Dwarf, her offspring may be blue eyed, but always will be white and fluffy since those genes are stronger. I also have two Nigerian/Nubian cross girls coming and I am hoping they will do better than the Nubians with the input of Nigerian Dwarf genes. 

If you are starting out and don't know which to try, Nigerians are easier to keep in because of their smaller size, and they eat less for the same reason, plus they are a true dairy goat and provide rich milk, though of course less than a large dairy goat does. Besides, they are just so darn cute! My choice for sure...maybe they will be yours too!