Quietly Heating Up

The big news at the Kuhlman farm now is the new boiler that was installed yesterday. The old one, which was probably pushing 30 years old, was pretty loud and was needing fairly regular service during the winter to keep it going. This new one is significantly quieter and a good bit more efficient, too. And with any luck it should go as long as the old one did, since its the same higher-end brand. The fellow installing the new one also redid a little of the electrical work and added a light in the area, which was a nice improvement. Now I can hardly wait for winter.

Farm Hand #2 Update

"Little" Julia had her 2 month checkup at the doctor's earlier today. She measured in at 22", which is right about the 50th percentile for height. But she tipped the scales at 13 lbs., 1 oz., which is in the 90-95th percentile for weight. That's pretty amazing considering she started off just over 9 weeks ago at 7 lbs., 12 oz., and dropped to 7 lbs., 3oz. by the time we left the hospital. Of course, she's gotta bulk up a little extra just to try to fend off her big brother. At this rate, she'll soon be helping me carry water to the chickens and toting around bags of feed. Here on the Kuhlman farm, we don't make no frail farm hands.

That's Gotta Hurt

Last night around 7 I was trying to get Paul out to the kitchen to get a snack. We had been playing in the living room and he was getting pretty wound up. So after I suggested to him that we get a snack, he jumps up and runs around into the hallway and towards the dining room. When he gets to the dining room, rather than continuing straight on to the kitchen as I would've expected, he made a sharp turn back towards the living room. In so doing he ran straight into the corner of the top of the buffet with his forehead He was at a full run, too, so it knocked him off his feet and onto his butt. It was pretty impressive and a vertical split quickly appeared right on his eyebrow over his right eye. He was inconsolable for several minutes, as you might expect, and was pretty averse to anyone touching it, even to gently wipe the blood off. After a bit he finally calmed down enough to give him some Tylenol and a cup of juice, which he quickly took down. And within 15-20 minutes he seemed to be back to playing normal in the living room again. Before the night was out he was even running around the house again and climbing on mommy & daddy like nothing happened. So that was our Sunday evening excitement...what a way to start the week, my poor little man.

Let the Rain Come

Since Sarah decided to go hang out with her friends on Sat. for a girl's day out, my last good chance to mow the grass before the rain was gone. It started raining just before she returned Sat. afternoon and it has been raining on and off since. It looks like we'll be wet through Tues. at least, and possibly through Thurs. We certainly need the rain and I'm glad for it, but it sure would have been nice to get the grass mowed first. Now it'll probably be Fri. or Sat. by the time I'm able to mow. As long as it is most places, it'll likely still be good and damp, so we're looking at a 3-4 hour mow. Oh well, I suppose that's a small price for having not mowed in over a month. Now that its wet, let the rain come so we can try to recover from the last couple months of dry. Let it rain.

Welcome to Joseph!

Welcome with me Joseph Albert Delwin Leonhardt to the world! He was born Aug. 14th at 7:30 pm to my cousin Brian and his wife Delwinna in Missoula, Montana. Little Joseph had a few issues at birth and had to spend some time in the NICU, but all seems to be fine now and mother & baby are doing well. Praise God for Joseph and pray that he stays healthy and grows strong.

Brown Grass Blues

Seems like a good name for a song, doesn't it? Well its the song I'm singing right now, that's for sure. Its been rather dry here at the farm the past month and the grass hasn't been mowed in about 4-5 weeks. On the surface that seems like a good thing, not having to mow quite so much. But the problem is that the weeds still grow. So let me describe the view to you now. Around the barn and near the springs the grass is still green and, in a few parts, even lush. There are a handful of other spots around the yard, mostly shady areas, where the grass is reasonably green still too. But the vast majority of the yard is dry and brown, with short brown grass and tall greenish brown weeds. So there are a few areas of actual grass that could stand to be mowed, and I did actually push-mow around the barn a little yesterday afternoon. But everyplace else, if I were to mow, I would only be mowing tall weeds and probably crushing the grass. It looks like there's a possibility of some rain this weekend, so I'm thinking I might try to mow today, at least the areas that need it. But even if we get a few storms over the weekend, I can't imagine it'll be nearly enough to start greening things up again. I guess this is fairly typical for Aug., though it seems maybe a little worse than years past. So hopefully it'll green up again as the weather cools off in the fall. And with 90's staring us in the face for the next couple days, fall can't come quick enough for me.

Nake!

Paul, our firstborn, has the makings of a great engineer and Presbyterian, I think. He is demonstrating his willingness to argue. Consider the following observation - "Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig...you both get muddy, but the pig enjoys it."

So lately he has been pointing to a squash vine and shouting, "Nake!" To which I answer, "It is not a snake. It is a vine."

"Nake!"
"It is not a snake. It is a vine."


"Nake!"
"It is not a snake. It is a vine."

"Nake!"
"Vine!"

"NAKE!"
"VINE!"

"NAKE! Hee-hee-hee-hee"
"It's a VINE!" Spoken while wrestling him to the ground and tickling him.

Fun times.

The Incredible, Edible Egg

I was out feeding the chickens yesterday and, low and behold, there was an egg on the ground near one of the feeders. That would be the first egg for this flock...YEAH! Fortunately, I had just finished cleaning out and restocking the nesting boxes with fresh straw on Friday, so those were all ready to go. So then, earlier today, we had company over for lunch who'd never been out to our farm before. After lunch we wandered down to the barn so they could see a bit more of the place and see the chickens. When we got over to the chicken coop I opened the nesting boxes and found to my surprise...another egg. So this has been a very momentous weekend for us and our flock. Both the eggs were really small, which is kinda funny and interesting, but as I understand it the first several eggs a hen lays are often a little weird and more likely to have issues. Hopefully in another couple weeks we'll be getting pretty consistent production out of enough of them to keep us stocked. And then not too long after that until we can start supplying our friends again.

More Dang Bugs

As I mentioned in a much earlier post, we've had a constant battle with the Carpenter Bees since we moved in. We've also been fighting off wasps and hornets periodically. And recently, it seems, the mud daubers have been particularly busy in the barn. Of course, its cicada season now so we've got those loud monsters all over. And the last couple months we've been finding the occasional outbreak of tentworms and a few other tree-destroying worms around the place. Just today I killed 3 hornets, 2 wasps, burned a tentworm infested branch, and watched a cicada-killer take down a carpenter bee. When I lived in Florida I understood the over-abundance of bugs since there's no cold weather to kill 'em off. But this is just ridiculous...we just need to keep moving north I think.

Cooper Has Left the Building

After nearly 2 days in our barn, our friendly neighborhood Cooper's Hawk finally managed to escape the barn. When I closed up Wed. night he was settling in for the night up on the track. But when Sarah and Paul went to check things out Thurs. before lunch, he was gone. And while it would've been cool to have the raptor rescue folks out to trap him so we could see him up close before release, its certainly a lot better for him to have gotten out under his own power. And who knows, maybe he could've gotten out the whole time was it not for a nest full of tasty young birds or bats to dine on. There's so many critters living in our barn its certainly possible. And with all the birds around the farm, I'm sure we'll see him around again soon.

Excitement in the Barn

I was unloading some stuff in the barn when I arrived home from work yesterday, and Paul comes running up to me pointing at the barn and saying "eagle", or something close to it. Sarah was shortly behind him and explained that they had just been in the barn a bit earlier and a hawk of some sort had flown in and gotten apparently stuck. They pointed up to the peak of the ceiling in the barn and sure enough, stuck inside one of the little cupola-type vents, was a hawk. I remembered that there's a fellow at work who volunteers in a raptor rescue program, so I called him up to ask what to do. Based on the behavior and markings he guessed that it was a Coopers Hawk (similar to the one in the picture) and that it had probably flown into the barn while chasing one of the many barn swallows that live there. They eat primarily other small birds, so that makes sense. And they, therefore, are very agile, which we got to see eventually when it found its way out of the vent cone. It would swoop all around near the peak of the barn, ducking under and then over various supporting beams, and usually perching along the pulley track that hangs from the peak and runs the full length of the barn. I tried in vain to bait it to come out by finding a baby barn swallow that had fallen out of the nest and placing it on the ground near the large barn door openings, but it managed to eventually find shelter before the hawk went after it. So I checked at dusk when I was closing the chickens up, and it appeared the hawk had settled in for the night up on that track. So I left the barn doors wide open in hopes that it can find its way out. That barn has harbored more critters in its time.

Dead Chicken Walking

Its been a while since I've given an update on the chickens, so I figured I oughta write up a little on their progress and status in an effort to stave off the flurry of e-mail questions that awaits if I'm negligent on this subject for too long. The first question most folks are asking now is, "are they laying yet?" Not yet, but it they oughta be starting any day now. I got them back in early to mid April, so its been about 4 months, which is about right for them to start laying. I'll be sure to write something up, though, when they do start laying, as several of the locals are eager for a renewal of their fresh egg supply. The next question I've been getting is, "when will you be butchering again?" Admittedly, this question is usually asked by folks who have helped before, or who wanted to but couldn't make it. At this point I'm planning on the fall sometime, like Oct. or early Nov. The basic quandary is that the coop can only comfortably accommodate about 25-30 chickens through the winter when they can't get out much. But with our current cache of 39 hens, it would be awfully tight. So come fall we'll need to cull about 10 of them. As you might remember, I marked all of the chickens with leg bands back in June to better manage the flock. Ironically, the hen tagged #1 has proven to be at the top of the pecking order and has even begun challenging me like a rooster might. This foolish act has pretty much guaranteed that she'll be the first one on the list to off this fall, if I can hold myself back that long. So strut and challenge now, #1, 'cause your days are numbered.

Meat & Drink

As I mentioned before, the annual Willett Beer-Drinker's Triathalon was held yesterday and a good time was had by all. It was 80 & sunny with a nice breeze all day, so the weather was spectacular. The competitors were primed and only a little inebriated. And the pig turned out great, once again. This year we went a little smaller with a 100 lbs. pig, which allowed us to get even better consistency than we've had before with the same cook time. There were still plenty of leftovers, too, so the smaller pig didn't bite us that way, and the chickens nestled inside the cavity didn't seem to mind either. We also adjusted how we did the corn this year. In past years we steamed the corn in the husk on the roaster grill, which took way too long and always caused the corn to be ready like an hour after the rest of the food. This year we left 'em in the husk and boiled 'em for a little bit in my turkey fryer, before putting them on the grill to steam and smoke. This gave us comparable flavor to previous years, but allowed us to get the corn done much faster so we could serve it all at the same time. Thanks again to Brian, who organizes this event every year, for having us back ( and for posing for this picture). A good time was had by all, and we hope you and your family enjoy the leftovers.

Upcoming Roast

Its that time of year again...the warm summer breezes, kids getting ready for school, and beer-drinker's triathalons. The 8th annual Willett sponsored Beer Drinker's Triathalon begins tonight and runs all day tomorrow. The events are Euchre, Cornhole, & Darts and by all reports the teams have been training hard for this year's competition. But more important than the competition, is the Sat. afternoon pig roast that David & myself do for the event. This will be our third straight year of having the pleasure of roasting a pig for these fit & inebriated athletes. I'll report back with pictures after the event, but we're certainly looking forward to another round of roast pig.

Kinder Goats

Due in large part to a relatively slow time at work, I've been reading a lot of articles on the web as I mentioned a few days ago. Sarah and I have kicked around raising other livestock besides chicken. Animals such as cows, sheep, pigs, and goats have all come up as possibilities, though we're certainly not considering doing anything like this anytime in the next year or two. So with this in mind I ran across an article discussing the raising of Kinder Goats. Kinder goats are a smaller bread that has good milk production, while also having a good meat percentage. The article mentions that an average doe produces between 1-4 quarts of milk a day, but most are around 2-3 quarts. 2-3 quarts seems to me like a decent quantity for a growing family like ours, and apparently this milk is also very good for cheese and butter. Now I've never raised any livestock besides chickens before, so this whole idea of keeping a few goats is a little bit daunting. But I'm sure there are some of you folks that have. So I was wondering if any of you that have could offer any advice or other insight into raising larger livestock, especially goats. Again, we're probably not gonna be jumping into this with an infant and a 2 year old pair of farm hands, but maybe in a few years....

The State of the Brew

Ohio. Okay, that was pretty poor, but its kind of a running gag in our family. Before my folks left last week, Dad and I managed to finally get the most recent brew bottled. As you may not recall, I brewed the weekend before Julia was born, like June 24th or something. We racked the brew at about 10-12 days of primary fermentation. And it had been resting in the secondary fermenter since then. We got just over 40 bottles out of it, which didn't seem to hardly make a dent in my bottle cache since my folks brought up nearly 8 dozen with them from Florida. The previous brew, which we did over at Mr. Albright's house, is nearly gone. I'm down to a little over a six-pack, now, and I have to say that it has been a tasty brew. And after the initial fears of poor carbonation, all of the bottles I've opened in the last couple weeks have been well carbonated and in fine shape. So now the big question is, what do I brew next? The first brew was an Old Speckled Hen clone and the just-bottled brew is a Blue Moon clone. I'm waffling between a Killian's clone and an Amber Bock clone, which is not at all surprising since I often waffle between which of these two fine brews to purchase at the store. Any input from my friends and family that will likely be helping me drain the bottles when its complete? At this point I'm thinking its probably best to wait till closer to Sept. to brew the next batch, mainly because of the high temps this summer bringing my basement up to the verge of too warm to ferment well. So many important decisions to be made....

Fun Reading

So I've been spending a lot of my free time at work, recently, reading articles at Backwoods Home Magazine. I stumbled across this site one day a few months ago when I was researching wood stoves. I have to say that there's a lot of interesting stuff on here, even if you don't have a cabin in the woods. There's articles on alternative energy sources & energy savings, gardening, farming, cooking, home remedies, etc. I read several interesting articles last week on gardening, including one on seed recovery & reuse, and one on self-sufficiency gardening (e.g., what should I grow to provide all the veggies for a family of 4 for a year). And while I'm not planning on doing either of these things, there were still a lot of useful gardening ideas included. I guess this stuff is just on my mind these days as we're finishing up our garden for this year and already beginning soil prep for next year. If anyone out there has any other good resources on these topics, I'd be interested in hearing them.

Happy Trails

After nearly 6 weeks of having parents around to help with the kids, we're now on our own again. My folks left for home early Thurs. morning, and Sarah had her first day at home with the kids then. Thanks so much to my parents for all of their help around the farm working on projects and helping with the kids, and start resting up for the next visit. ;-)

Barn Door Progress

All the windows are cleaned up and detailed, the new track is installed, and the new barn doors are built & hung. This picture is a nice shot of the finished product, at least for the summer. We still have the task of rebuilding the big main doors in the middle facing the driveway, but we're not gonna mess with that until later in the fall. Also, I have to wait for the track flashing to get in so I can install it over all the new track. But other than a couple of details like that, the bulk of the work is done and the barn looks excellent. Thanks so much to my Dad for helping out so much with this task, and really for helping me out all around the farm everytime they come to visit. This was a fun project and I'm really looking forward to completing the main doors this fall. We also might try to tackle completing the garden fence this fall, too, but we'll see how all that plays out. Until then it'll probably be lots of small tasks (e.g., finishing up some of this detail work around the barn) for me.

Welcome to Daniel Owen Mrak!

Congratulations to Sam & Erik Mrak who welcomed their first son into the world on July 26th! Daniel Owen weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs., 3.8 oz. and was 22.75" long. Erik reports that mother and baby are both doing well, and I would guess that they're home by now. That's some terrific news from our friends in the Pacific Northwest, and we wish the Mrak family all the best.