Wednesday, December 23, 2009

December at Decimal Place


As I write this, we are past the solstice and just days ahead of Christmas. One by one, the does get themselves in tune with the season, working less on producing milk and more on preparing for kids, though the first births of Spring are still two months away. So milk and cheese are a bit more scarce this time of year, but that seems to be what Nature intends.
All the stock make their accommodations to the cold and the rain. Mary is putting up more wind baffles, to make the barn less drafty. The goats snug down into the wood shavings, often settling down together in family groups . . .




or in "extended family" groups.



No, none of the does really want to hop up on a frosty morning for milking. They take their time, and wait to see if Mary is really serious and ready to go, before they stand and stretch. But of course, once there are does on the move, it's a race into the dairy parlor, same as always.
Not so long ago, 2009 was being marked as Atlanta's seventh wettest year since record-keeping began. Today at the feed store, I heard that 2009 is now second wettest. And now we are getting chores done and supplies in ahead of another heavy rain, so 2009 could take the record. We know farmers who have lost nearly everything. We've been blessed, with the creek staying in its banks, and nothing worse to contend with than a sea of mud in front of the barn. The goats don't like that, either. We try to be extra-diligent in keeping the water troughs and buckets inside the barn filled, and we go through more alfalfa hay on those days when the goats can't go out. And Mary makes a note of which does do venture out for a bite of pasture grass—she wants to be fair when doling out points toward the Good Grazer Award.
With the holidays, it seems that we have had one gathering after another here at Decimal Place Farm. Family and friends gathered here for a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner. The Georgia Dairy Goat Breeders Association came for their Christmas meeting/party. In between those two, there were just too many events to count. Mary's sister Stephanie came down for the weekend and shared her catering magic with the breeders group and a party of foodies, and thank goodness she did. Usually, a visit to the farm means a stroll around; though with the immoderate rain sometimes all you can do is sit around the heater and drink tea with your friends. Not that that's a bad thing.
We hope that you are also blessed this holiday season. We hope that you find the time to share a warm cup with friends. While we all look forward expectantly to Spring, it is important to stop and feel Winter in the air, and to experience the joys of this special time.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Fall at Decimal Place

Where we sit just south of Atlanta, fall means cool nights and mild days. The leaves are still turning here, and the grass is still green, making for a happy herd of goats. The fall of acorns from the spreading oaks makes the goats even happier. Some people say that acorns are harmful to goats, but our animals relish acorns as a seasonal treat.

Mother Nature has more than made up for the years of drought in these parts, with one of the rainiest falls on record. Some farmers in the metro area have suffered serious flooding damage, and our prayers are with them. But good luck and good planning have spared us significant damage. Mary has been working since we became responsible for this land to slow the movement of water across the land and to control erosion in the creek, using truckloads of otherwise-unwanted woodchips and whatever stone became available.

The spiders have packed it in for another year. In the warmth of summer, the spiders own the barn, but by the first cool weeks they have placed their egg cases and slipped away. Speaking of insects, we didn't see the praying mantises this year. We only see them in the very height of August's heat, but the years of drought may have set them back. We can only hope that this year's rains will help them to recover. By contrast, the fireflies did come back. Last year there were almost none, but this year they were twinkling under the trees at night, once again making it possible to believe in faeries. It wasn't the riot of lights from former years, but it was lovely and a promise of much more to come next year.

This is a quiet time in the barn. Cooler weather naturally inclines the does toward breeding, and so we can expect a wave of kids in early spring. But until then, it's just a matter of keeping the does well-fed, healthy and safe. We've been good at that for a long time.

But in the dairy parlor, there is all kinds of action. Mary has been at this long enough that people come to expect something special from her around Christmas. For some people, Mary's fresh chevre has become a fixture in their holiday plans, whether "plain" (a word that doesn't do the product justice) or flavored (basil pesto, garlic & dill, lavender & fennel, ash-coated, and dessert favorite amaretto & mandarin orange). Mary is also still making her fresh feta and tuma (mozzarella style) cheeses. Mary's cheddar-making has really come on. The fresh cheddar is terrific and the aged cheddar is a whole new experience. Even the brie is turning out more predictably, delivering the not-quite liquid texture and natural sweetness you'd expect when you open the mold-covered rind.

Fall is also the time for festivals and competitions, which kept Mary pretty busy the last two months. But there's plenty of good news and congratulations to go around. Mary's cheese took 3 prizes at the American Dairy Goat Association cheese competition, in Buffalo. Just getting the samples to the competition was a challenge. But the efforts paid off—Mary's cheddar took a first place, while her tuma and feta each took a second. This is Mary's second year competing, and her second time bringing home an armful of prizes.

Decimal Place also had good luck at the Georgia National Fair in Perry. Most of our does are American Saanen by breed, but we have a few who are classified as "recorded grade" or mixed breed. One of our recorded grade does won best in breed for that class, and other does won their classes or placed well. Our daughter also won her class in showmanship, demonstrating her knowledge of goats and her ability to work with an animal in the show ring.

. . .

Saturday, September 19, 2009

a new day

Hello, folks. I am a farmhand on Decimal Place, and have taken it upon myself to record the farm happenings, so that all of you wonderful people out there who love the milk and cheese can see some of the things--whether big or small--that go into maintaining a working dairy farm.

There will be much more on this later...