Happy New Year

It is somewhat difficult to wax poetic about the greatness that was 2019 while under siege by an especially virulent and debilitating strain of influenza, but in honour of New Year's Eve, here it goes...

The obvious highlight of 2019 for us here on Gael Glen Farm was having baby Alistair join our clan. We are incredibly lucky to have had this beautiful, happy and healthy little boy join our family on January 16, 2019.

The birth of our five perfect baby goats was another high point of 2019 for us here on the farm.  Luna, Percy, Duke, Bishop and little Autumn are the most adorable, cuddly goats.  I was never planning to own a goat herd but if the shoe fits...

Ava takes the cake as the "most bitey and rambunctious" part of 2019.  I love this big girl to bits but I cannot wait for the "puppy phase" to be over.  I am so done with the jumping and mouthing.  She is improving on the "sit" command though "leave it" continues to elude her.  If you can manage to get her to sit, she is so full of love and adores rubs and cuddles.  Let's call Ava a work in progress.

The 2019 growing season was one of our most challenging so far.  We had an incredibly late spring and several crops that failed entirely (winter squash, cucumbers, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower).  We still managed to pull off an incredible CSA program with gorgeous, delicious baskets of vegetables for 16 weeks.  A huge "Thank You" to Mrs. Cheryl and Kristy for coming by to help me on harvest days!

In 2019 we said both "Hello" and "Goodbye" to Granby the billy goat.  I cannot say I was sorry to see him go but I am grateful for the beautiful babies he gave us and all of the delicious milk that Martha and Mellie have been producing since August.

While Granby was a pain, the worst parts of 2019 would have to be the bout of stomach flu that steamrolled the family in late November, followed much too closely by a serious case of influenza that had us all out for the count between Christmas and New Year's.  When you are in bed on New Year's Eve with a fever, chills, aches and pains, a runny nose and a persistent cough - there is only one place to go in the new year...up!

From all of us here on Gael Glen Farm, we wish you a safe, happy and healthy new year.  If you should choose to send us some extra "healthy" wishes in return, we would certainly not turn them down.

I will leave the waiting up until midnight to those of you with more gusto.  I am all set to turn in early with the hope of greeting the new year fever-free. 

Happy 2020 Everyone!

Merry Christmas

On behalf of Martha the goat and the rest of our farm and family, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Sleighpooling

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

It seems that we will be receiving a visit from both a fairy collecting teeth and a jolly old elf delivering gifts tonight!  What are the chances?!

With the tooth situation taken care of, we are ready and waiting for Santa.  It was hard work but I finally managed to exhaust our crazy kiddos.  Both big boys helped me outside for two solid hours this morning doing chores and mucking barns.  Everything is clean and full of fresh straw.  If there happens to be a pregnant virgin needing a spot to give birth, my barns are ready for her...though, the barns at the equestrian park next door are clean and heated....just saying.

Charlie was not digging the hat.

We made gingerbread cookies for Santa

and then prepared gift boxes full of homemade treats and goodies for our neighbours.

After the kids had a short nap, we walked for three hours delivering our gifts and visiting with our neighbours.  If this does not help solidify for the boys that Christmas is about giving than I don't know what will!

At bath time we gifted the boys with new jammies and socks for the big day.

Alistair very quickly figured out how to open gifts!

After reading The Night Before Christmas it was off to bed for our little ones.  They were snoring in minutes.  Now to make the cinnamon buns for tomorrow's breakfast and we will be ready to go!

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

Christmas Chaos

And so it begins...

These kids are crazy!

Good gracious.  Santa please come soon!

Toboggans & Tarts

Long toboggan trips, short afternoon naps and very tasty cherry tarts - pretty much a perfect holiday Sunday.

A big "Thank You" to Beekeeper Jim and Ms. Margo for the tin of holiday treats.  You beat us to the punch - neighbourhood treat delivery is on our schedule for Monday and Tuesday; though I am not sure that there will be any cherry tarts left by then!

A Haunting Duet

We had a relaxing and enjoyable Winter Solstice here on Gael Glen Farm.  After a leisurely breakfast, morning chores and Alistair's nap, we spent a few hours exploring the Museum of History using a membership pass we took out at the public library. 

Apparently this was not the activity of choice for most people today as we had the museum mostly to ourselves. 

Liam devoured the temporary Neanderthal exhibit (he and I have been talking a lot about evolution lately) and Seamus was awestruck by the totem poles. 

All three boys even sat through a full length showing of the Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) in the museum's theatre. Shocking!  I think they are on their best behaviour because Grandpa Don is up visiting; I am not complaining.

I rounded out the evening by finishing all the gift wrapping.  Thanks Grandma Susan for the solid head start!  I am now officially done all the Christmas baking and wrapping!  Woot woot!

Speaking of woots...well, actually hoots - I was treated to a haunting duet by a pair of owls during evening chores.  I have never heard owls here on the farm before but tonight they were very vocal in their celebrations of the winter solstice.  It was magnificent.

We are off to an awesome start to Christmas vacation.  I am looking forward to another excellent day tomorrow and to the start of longer days.  Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

Blood Spatter Analysis

It is always disconcerting when I enter into the chicken coop in the morning and am greeted by a blood bath.  This is not the first time this has happened.  Remember that day last spring when Beemster got bumble foot and bled all over the roosts?  It looked like a crime scene.

Unfortunately, Beemster is having some issues once again.  In spite of my addition of a heat lamp in the chicken coop, one of the tips of Beemster's comb got frostbitten during our latest cold snap.  The skin turned black and then fell off resulting in blood spatter all across the coop - on the feeder, in the water bucket, on the wall.

Ian and I disinfected Beemster's comb, applied Polysporin to the wound and then slathered a thick layer of Vaseline all over his comb and wattles.  This should help prevent future frostbite incidents.  I am so glad nobody died.  A bloody comb, that I can handle!

An Early Christmas Gift

Inside we are still baking away; we are busy preparing goodies for our annual Christmas treat boxes for our neighbours.  Outside we were able to gift our hens with an early Christmas gift: a tray of homegrown chard sprinkled liberally with tasty aphids.

On this very frosty day, this was a gift warmly received by our resident poultry.  I was just glad to get this bug infestation out of my house!

I will take this as a message from Fate that winter should be reserved for rest.  Message received; I will take a break from growing greens....at least until it is time to start our seedlings for 2020.  Until then I will continue to browse the seed catalogues and dream of warm soil between my toes.

A Dog-Egg-Mitten Catastrophe

There must be a link between how cold it is outside and one's propensity to make bad decisions.

This evening I found myself in the chicken coop rushing to put the animals to bed before Ian and the boys headed out to Beavers.  I needed to collect the eggs since they would freeze in the coop over night.  Unfortunately, I did not have an egg basket on hand.  I forgot it in the garage.  

Pressed for time and disinclined to brave the cold to trek from the coop to the garage and back again, I made the oh so bad decision to carefully place the eggs inside my soft woolly mitten.  They should be safe there, right?  Wrong.  So, so wrong.

While I was aware of my limited time for chores and the plunging temperatures, I forgot to account for my mitten and egg obsessed dog.  My very, very large dog who did I mention is obsessed with my mittens and chicken eggs?

In Ava's defence, my mittens are lamb skin and probably smell delicious to her.  And she was fed raw eggs as a treat on the farm where she was born.  However, my very bad decision to place five very breakable eggs in my mitten in combination with failing to account for "the Ava factor" resulted in no breakfast for me tomorrow and a very slimy inside of my mitten.  

Up until this dog-egg-mitten catastrophe, I was actually completely caught up on the laundry.  Who was I kidding?  That could never last.

A Santa as Sweet as Fudge

Today was Christmas concert day at Liam and Seamus' school.  Poor Seamus had a melt down this morning when Daddy showed him the reindeer antlers he found at the dollar store for his costume.  They were tiny.  "But they are Charlotte [our very small dog] sized!" he wailed.  He wore them anyway and looked so sweet.  

Liam was similarly adorable.  He had the honour of being selected to play Santa Claus for his grade one class' performance of the Christmas Parade.  Despite the scratchy beard which he nonetheless sported proudly, Liam remembered to hold up his side of the sleigh, wave and "Ho!Ho!Ho!" concurrently.  I have never been more proud.  It almost made up for the remaining hour and 27 minutes where I had to watch way too many grade 5 and 6 children floss to hip hop remixed Christmas carols in French.  Sigh.

Aside from continuing to wrestle with my never ending laundry pile, I also made a batch of fudge today.  On one hand I enjoy making Aunt Jane and Dad's maple fudge as it allows me to keep alive a tradition they created and sustained in our family.  On the other, it makes me sad that they are not able to do it anymore.  Nonetheless, I want to live in a world where we eat homemade maple fudge during the holidays and I want my kids to grown up loving this special treat as much as I did.  And so, Ian and I together mixed and mixed the fudge going back and forth "Is it dull yet?" "Nope, still shiny." until it actually turned dull (around 43 C) and we got it into the pan just in the nick of time.  If I cannot have Aunt Jane or Dad as my fudge making partners in crime, then I will gladly accept my strong armed husband as my mixing helper and moral support giver in this area.

Cheese & Crackers

Alistair is a big fan of crackers right now. 

They are easy to hold on to and they make a satisfying "crunch" sound when he crushes them with his four teeny baby teeth.  What's not to love?

 And what goes better with crackers than cheese?  Luckily, I had a surplus of goat milk building up in the fridge so today I walked on the wild side and made my own mozzarella cheese.  Aside from needing to have citric acid and rennet on hand (which we do), it was relatively easy.

Recipe: Gael Glen Farm's Homemade Goat Milk Mozzarella Cheese

Combine 1 cup of water with 1 1/2 tsp of citric acid.  Stir to dissolve.

Combine 1/4 cup of water with 1/4 tsp of rennet.  Set aside.

Pour 3.5 litres of raw, filtered goat milk into a large pot.

Stir in the citric acid mixture.

Heat over medium-high heat until the temperature reaches 90 F (32 C).

Remove from heat.

Add rennet mixture.  Stir for 30 sec.

Cover the mixture and wait for 10 min for it to set.  It should have a gelatin-like consistency.

Make horizontal and vertical cuts to make a grid pattern.  Be sure to cut to the very bottom.

Return the mixture to the stove and stir over medium heat.  Cook the curds until the temperature reaches 105 F (41 C).

Stir the curds for 3 min.

Remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon scoop out the curds into a mesh strainer.

Gently press out the whey from the curds using a wooden spoon.

Return the whey to the stove and heat until 185 F (85 C).

Place the strainer containing the curds into the hot whey for 3 min to heat up the curds.

Remove the curds from the whey.  Wearing gloves, gather the curds into a ball and stretch and fold the curds until they become shiny and smooth.  If the curds do not stretch, place them back in the hot whey for 2 min and then continue.

Sprinkle 1 tsp of salt on to the cheese ball and continue to stretch and fold.

Submerge the cheese ball in an ice water bath to help it hold its shape.

Eat the cheese at room temperature or store in fridge or freezer.
Once cool, I grated mine.

Cheese and crackers anyone?  I also see pizza in our future.

A Blue Christmas

What a difference 24 hours makes!  Welcome winter.  What a beautiful snowy day.  It almost makes up for the over 2 hours of shovelling slushy snow that I had to do this morning to get from the house to the barns and then to get the gates and barn doors open to let the animals out.  And here I was thinking that we might have a green Christmas...maybe we will have a blue Christmas instead!

Rollin' in the Treats

When they are not busy rollerskating around the house, Liam and Seamus really do make good baker's apprentices.  So far we have made:

Date squares

Chocolate truffles

Peanut butter Rice Krispies squares & Cookie dough fudge

Oreo cheesecake balls

With all the rolling and baking, the boys tired themselves right out. They were fast asleep well before the rain changed to snow.  They will be surprised when they wake up to a winter wonderland tomorrow!

P.S.

Doesn't Seamus remind you of a much less scary version of a Wheeler from Return to Oz?

Yikes!  I found these guys terrifying when I was a kid!