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A good dog is Great!

Published by in Dog on April 16th, 2013

This is Charlie, we adopted him about 2 months ago from a breeder that accepted him back from a client that bought him about three years ago.They have a standing policy to accept any of their dogs back if the new owner for some reason cant take care of them. Charlie’s owner had to move and couldn’t take Charlie with him.

We were lucky enough to be looking for a new dog at the right time so Charlie came to live at our house. We love this dog and he has been just perfect for our little farm. He is well mannered and loves to have fun. He rides in the car, takes a bath like it’s the best thing you could do for him and he keeps the coyotes away from our goats. He is great with our kids and although he has a lot of energy and runs around he doesn’t touch us unless we invite him to.

Charlie is an American Labrador and the more I learn about this breed the better I like them.

 

 

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Artisan bread at home

Published by in Featured, Garden, Uncategorized on June 15th, 2012

This is an easy to make crusty, crackling artisan bread that is really good. It only takes five minutes to prep too!

 

Mix together the following:

3 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dry active yeast

Then add 1 1/3 cups slightly warm water

Let it rise in the bowl for 18 hours (Yes I said 18 hours) until doubled in size.

Let it rise

Then dust a clean linen towel (not terry cloth) with corn meal or a course wheat flour and place the ball in the middle of the towel with the side that you pulled and tucked face down. Flip the edges of the towel up to cover the dough and let it sit and rise for two hours.

 

Then about 20 minutes before the two hours is up  heat a ditch oven type pot with a lid in the oven and preheat the oven to 475 degrees.  Now open the oven and take of the lid to the pot. Take the towel with the dough in it and flip the dough carefully into the hot pot. Place the lid back on, close the oven and let it bake for 30 minutes. then take the lid off and let it bake for about 20 minutes more or until it’s dark and crusty.

Carefully take the loaf out and let it cool for a little while. I like to cut the first piece when it is still a little warm and smother it with butter. The crust is crunchy and has a deep rich flavor. It is so good.

You can also put some rosemary or other herb in the dough as you are mixing it. About a teaspoon of your favorite herb will do.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Goat Milk

Published by in Featured, Goat milk, Goats on June 7th, 2012

Goat's Milk

I am not sure why most people freak out when they think they might have to drink goat milk. My best guess is that throughout recent history goats have been portrayed as something less than worthy of our attention.

What most people don’t realize is that the majority of the worlds population consumes goat milk and not cow milk. Goat milk is much healthier for you and it tastes as good or better if you are getting the milk from a good dairy breed. I get my milk from Nubian goats which have the highest butter fat content of all of the large goat breeds. The milk with the highest butter fat content of all goats comes from the Nigerian Dwarf breed. I have some of those as well but frankly I would rather milk a goat that can give me about a gallon of milk per day than one that gives me less than half a gallon on a good day.

A good site to visit to compare goats milk to cows milk can be found here http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/94/2

Here on our Urban Hobby Farm we are getting about a gallon of fresh sweet goat milk per day and we are doing all kinds of great things with it. We are drinking it, it goes on our cereal and in our recipes, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream are in the freezer right now. We make a soft goat cheese with herbs and I just recently have been making hard cheddar which is in the fridge now to age for a few months. Kefir is a favorite of my wife and I to make fruit shakes with as well. We have friends and neighbors who have tried it and have totally changed their minds about goat milk and now they want to buy it from us. We sell them some here and there as long as we don’t need it.

If you have room for a goat on your property then I highly recommend it.

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Today’s haul from our little Urban Hobby Farm

Published by in Featured, Garden, Goat milk, Vegetable Garden on June 7th, 2012

What a great day for our little farm. My 7 year old daughter went out with me today to check on the garden (I have to admit I had neglected it for a couple of days) and this is what she found. Of course we milk the goat and gather eggs twice a day but all of the veggies seemed to “appear” all of a sudden. Gotta love the automatic timer on the watering system and I highly recommend it if your life is at all busy.

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Garden #1 Update – Here we grow

Published by in Featured, Garden, Vegetable Garden on October 10th, 2011

Here we Grow!

 

Here is an update on the garden. We have the corn in and it is doing very well. There is a second planting of corn to the left of the taller corn. This of course spreads out the harvest time so I have fresh corn for a longer period of time.

I installed a drip system for the peppers and tomatoes that you can see in the rows on the right and then to the left I have peas going in three rows. I thought I would like the row system better since I would get to watch the water run through the rows but since time is short I think I prefer the drip system since I can set it with a timer and then forget it.

There is still space left in this area and I will probably plant more onions and some broccoli as well.

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Reasons to raise rabbits

Published by in Featured, Rabbit, Raising rabbits on September 17th, 2011

 

New Zealand Rabbits

Rabbits are great for an Urban or Hobby farm

Here on our Urban Hobby farm we have New Zealand rabbits which are probably the most popular domestic rabbit. Adult rabbits weigh between 8-10 pounds for males and 9-12 pounds for females. We have a male (buck) and a female (doe) here on our farm and we expect to have our first litter around the first of October.

Rabbits are easy to care for

Rabbits are very proficient breeders and can produce around 20 offspring per year making them very efficient livestock animals. They are very easy to manage and can be raised in relatively small spaces. A simple cage with a water bottle and feed dish that is 2’ x 2’ is sufficient for one adult rabbit and if the cage has a wire bottom then cleaning is easy. Weather may be an issue in your area so some cover from wind, rain and snow should be provided as well. If heat is an issue in your area then you will need to provide a way to keep your rabbits cool.

Rabbits provide great nutrition

The USDA has thoroughly researched rabbit meat and its nutritional value. The protein content of rabbit meat is almost 21 percent, which is more than beef or chicken. Calories are low in chicken and mineral content is high. Rabbit is leaner than beef, chicken or pork and has a flavor and texture very similar to chicken.

Rabbits are efficient

Rabbits can produce 6 pounds of usable meat compared to a cow that only produces 1 pound of usable meat on the same amount of feed and water. This makes them a great choice for producing meat on a small urban or hobby farm.

Cooking rabbit

Rabbits are easy to clean and prepare for cooking. A young rabbit or fryer is generally about 9 weeks old, has white meat and usually weighs in at about 4 or 5 pounds. A roaster is over 5 pounds and is up to 8 months old and has a darker meat that will be most likely tougher. Fryers are ready at 2 months of age.

During “The Challenge” I will be butchering and cooking up some rabbit so stay tuned for more info and demonstrations in the near future.

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Why quail?

Published by in Featured, Quail on September 14th, 2011

Quail on our farm

 

Good question…here are some answers.

Cash

My two twelve year olds decided they wanted to start a little breeding program and sell some birds and eggs for profit. I supported this because anytime a kid wants to be entrepreneurial I think it’s a good thing. So we started out by buying thirty birds from someone getting out of the business, which actually turned out to be a little over sixty birds, we don’t know why the lady we purchased them from gave us sixty.

We have our first hatch going on as I write this and so far we have 115 chicks. We will see what our local market demand is and then probably consume the rest once they reach maturity.

Eggs

Quail eggs have been used as a remedy for centuries by the Chinese for hay fever, asthma, eczema and psoriasis. They are packed with vitamins and minerals and the nutritional value is said to be 3-4 times that of chicken eggs. They don’t appear to cause allergies like chicken eggs can and they actually fight against allergy symptoms because of their ovomucoid protein.  They contain 13 proteins compared to 11 proteins found in chicken eggs.

They also help combat against digestive tract disorders, strengthen the immune system, increase brain activity, help with nervous system stability and promote memory health. They help with kidney, liver and gallbladder stones as well. They help remove toxins in the body and children who eat them are less likely to suffer from infectious diseases.

Women benefit from stronger hair because of benefits to the prostate of proteins, vitamins and phosphorus men can see an increase in sexual potency.

Meat production

Quail are pretty easy to raise and can be productive much sooner than chickens. Quail will start laying eggs in about 8 weeks as compared to chickens that start laying in about 6 months. Quail also consume only about two pounds of food for every one pound of eggs produced. Chickens will consume about three pounds for the same one pound of eggs. Yes you have to crack more eggs but it really doesn’t take that long.

Quail meat is high in protein and low in fat. When the skin is removed it has a lower fat content than skinless chicken. It contains beneficial polyunsaturated fatty acids as well.

Texas A&M University developed a heavily muscled strain of Coturnix quail that has light colored flesh and a live weight of 10-13 ounces in only 7 weeks. This is a good breed if meat production is your goal. They are considered in many parts of the world and in many U.S. restaurants as a gourmet item.

We will be providing some recipes for quail in the next few months and I will be cooking up some quail as part of my backyard challenge during the month of January, and maybe before then too.

I will talk more about breeding, brooding and raising quail in some upcoming posts. But for right now I have 115 new baby quail chick to check on.

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The Garden

Published by in Featured, Garden, Vegetable Garden on September 9th, 2011

Here is where we will start the garden. This space is only 25ft by 39ft and the average backyard in the US should be able to accomadate a space this large, if not all in the same piece then in a few smaller areas depending how your yard lays out. I do have another raised bed garden area that I we will get to later. As you can see it is completely bare so we will first start with the watering system and then move on to the layout and then planting.

One benefit that this space does hove is that the horse and goats have had access to it for about a year, so there is plenty of fertile soil. You of course can duplicate this by simply spreading a layer of manure (dry if you want to get started right away) or any good natural bagged fertilizer from your local garden store.

 

Come back soon to see the water lines and drip system installed. I think I will do a video of that process for the next post.

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Goats! The reasons why

Published by in Featured, Goat milk, Goats on September 2nd, 2011

I often get strange looks when we mention that we have goats. Nothing to obvious mind you, since most people are polite or at least try to be. I can tell though that many people just don’t understand why we have them or why we spend the time milking them every day. Then there are others who find it somewhat fascinating that we have them and once I tell them the reasons they are even more intrigued and some even want to come and see them. I don’t mind and I enjoy having curious visitors come and see what we are up to. The next few posts will talk about the different reasons why goats are a smart choice for an urban or most likely a hobby farmer.

 

Reasoning

 

Responsibility

My number one reason for getting our first goat just after we moved here in November of 2004 was to have something for my then 6 year old boy and girl to be responsible for, not all on their own of course, but they began taking care of our Boer/Nubian cross doe the day we got her home and in her new pen. It wasn’t much of a pen but it worked. The kids have been taking care of goats since then and I really don’t see any end in sight.

 

4H and other clubs

Not long after we got the first goat we found out about the Nigerian Dwarf breed we immediately got our first two. They were the perfect size for the kids (human), easy to handle and in general as well mannered as could be. Shortly after adding them to our farm we found a miniature goat club and went to their yearly gathering and show in Cottonwood, Arizona and spent the week observing. We met some great people that were more than happy to help show us the ropes and tell us all of their secrets. We are friends with several of these great folks now and still call on them occasionally for info and ideas.

 

The kids (human) have competed in shows and have even won a few ribbons. At a young age they learned to pay attention to details and listen to directions. Clubs are a great way to get started and a little competition is never a bad thing. They learned that it is ok to not win and to have fun in the whole process.

 

Milk

Milking the goats has become a daily ritual and is actually relaxing when you get into it. Before we had goats we, meaning the kids and I, would be sitting in front of the TV after dinner until bedtime. Now after dinner we spend about 45 to an hour each night out back milking and feeding animals. There is something relaxing about milking and watching the bucket or jar fill up while you go through the motions. The kids have even said that they feel relaxed while they are milking. The kids rotate every other night so everyone gets a chance to do the milking.

 

We use the milk every day and then sell what we don’t use to friends and neighbors. I use it on my milk in the mornings and in waffles or pancakes when I make them. I make ice cream and from what I am told by everyone who has tried it some darn good soft cheese called Chevre that is really good on a cracker or sprinkled over certain dishes.

 

Goat milk is healthy and most people that are lactose intolerant can use goat milk for their dairy needs. I recently had a woman stop by to buy some milk that had not had any dairy in 12 years. Her doctor had told her that she was allergic and to stop consuming it. He failed to tell her that goat milk was ok and once she found out she could have it she started making cheese and ice cream and enjoying something that she had dearly missed.

 

Meat

Although we haven’t yet slaughtered our goats we have purchased goat meat to eat. The meat tastes more like game than beef does but it isn’t bad. The goats we have are all for dairy purposes and that is what we use them for. You can of course use a dairy goat for meat production but we have not gotten to that stage yet. Who knows, we might soon enough.

 

Yard maintenance

Yes, yard maintenance with goats can really work out well. Once a year when the weeds really start coming in I let the goats out to roam the yard and eat to their hearts content. Not only do they get rid of many of the weeds lining the border of the property and spruce up the place, they get extra feed which saves me money.

 

We have an elderly neighbor right next door to us who has a half acre pasture. Since he is older and does not have animals anymore this pasture was severely overgrown with dead grass at least eighteen inches tall. The only way for him to get it under control would be to bring in some heavy duty commercial mowers and that was going to cost him. So I asked him if he would let me put in a gate between his place and mine so I could let the goats in during the day and then put them away at night. He agreed and within about a month the whole pasture was trim all the way to the fence line and looking great. This is our second season of doing free yard maintenance for him and of course we love the extra pasture and feed for the animals.

 

So there are a few reasons to have a goat, or two, or ten like we do. There are more reasons but I think I will write about those individually. These are the main reasons for an urban or hobby farm to have them. They are actually the main focus of our little operation and not only are they productive, they are fun. Each one has its own personality and we have our favorites. So if you are so inclined then get one for yourself. You will be glad you did.

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Welcome

Published by in Uncategorized on September 1st, 2011

Welcome to my new blog. I am excited to start showing you around our place and introduce you to the many projects we have going on. I hope you find it educational and inspiring enough to get you started on those projects you have been thinking of doing.

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