Goat Show Day 1

So we just got home from the goat show. We left the house about 6am and didn't get home until about 11pm. Long day at the goat show. Since I have to be up early again tomorrow I don't have much time to post but I'll give you a few highlights:

(1) I showed an alpine doe who won her class (Alpine Yearlings). I think I will get to show her again tomorrow.
(2) I was the star waitress of the dinner. They usually don't have one but I filled the role splendidly and was graciously thanked by all in attendance.
(3) I may have ring worm. There was a very cute kitten hanging around the show. I picked it up a few times, after which someone told me it likely has ringworm. I guess I'll just have to wait and see but Doug told me a little Clorox will take care of a ring worm infection.
(4) I was in charge of keeping the arena dirt damp and I did a very good job. I will have more watering to do tomorrow morning, bright and early, but ti really helps keep the dust to a minimum during the show when all the goats are walking about kicking up dust.
(5) I'm sick. I have been taking Zicam and using Halls lozenges all day today and despite my best efforts my sinuses are super congested. I can barely breath right now and I can't bend over or my entire head starts pounding. I can't imagine I'll feel any better tomorrow but hopefully in the next few days I will.

Okay, that's all for tonight folks. Chat tomorrow! And I'll fill you in with more details on Monday once I have time to spend blogging.

Best!

As a note, I will definitely do my best effort to be back at the show next year!

Goat Show Prep

It's been a long day today and we have an early morning tomorrow (up at 5am) so I'm going to make this short:

Today I helped with a few chores around the house (putting straw down on the new grass seed, picking tomatoes, etc...) and then Doug (the husband at this farm) and I headed into the fair grounds to get set up for the show that starts tomorrow. The new experience I had today was using a post driver to set posts up in the barn. That is hard work! I forgot my camera otherwise I would've taken a photo of myself doing some real manual labor. In the afternoon we went into La Crosse to pick up the audio equipment for the show. Then, after returning to the fair grounds, Doug left me there for dead. Well, in reality he didn't, but I was sitting there for like 15 minutes with no idea where Doug was or any idea if/when he was coming back. Although I had a neighbor's cell phone, reception is very spotty around here so that doesn't always help much. Eventually Doug came back for me but I had started to peruse the goat stalls looking for a good place to sleep for the night if it were to come down to that. I think a goat would keep me warm even though it is getting down into the 40s here tonight. Brrr!

Okay, I've gotta be up at 5am tomorrow morning so I'm going to bed, now.

Night!

Back at Kara Kahl Farm

Good Evening!

Just want to check-in now that I'm back on the first farm I went to, Kara Kahl farm, in Houston, MN. They are hosting a dairy goat show this weekend and I'm going to be helping with that so I'll make sure to take pictures and videos as the weekend unfolds.

For those of you who remember my favorite little buck kid from before, he is no longer with us, at the farm, or on earth. He was sent to Zumbrota (where the slaughter house is) earlier this month. I just found this news out today. It was sad news to hear but I knew it was coming. If only he has been a girl....

Well enough depressing thoughts for the night. I'm off to bed to get plenty of rest before tomorrow. An early morning and an action packed day for sure!

Best!

Cows and Honey

So today I went with Paul, the husband here at the farm, to check on the cattle. I had to do this myself the other day and I just mostly observed them from afar. Today, however, I got up closer. Not too close, but closer. I maintained a safe distance at all times!

Here's a few photos of the cattle. You can see why I didn't get too close, look at those horns!!

One of the females

The male of the group

Just because I wouldn't get close, however, didn't stop Paul. Here he is petting once of the cattle:

And here's a video of me out in the cattle fields.

Now this evening we've been working on extracting honey. We got about 120 lbs. from the bees on this farm here. Here are two videos of me describing the extracting process:

Opening the Honey Comb
Honey Extracting

That's all for today. Tomorrow I am heading back to MPLS for a few days. I may of may not make post while I'm home. Either way, I'm heading back out on my adventures on Thursday. Don't forget to check back!

The Chicken is Born

Okay, so within the last 10 minutes the chicken was born. And I got it all on VIDEO. Click here to watch!

I'll give you a full day update later.

Best!

BIG NEWS!

Okay so long story, we have eggs inside that we took from a nest yesterday because they were really cold even though they were supposed to be hatching. They are being stored in the incubator in my room. This morning I checked on them and one of them is starting to hatch. I can hear the chick cherping and it has made a tiny hole with it's beak. I'll keep you posted throughout the day but look forward to some more cute chick pictures!!! YAY!! Best morning ever!

Lots to Catch Up On

Sorry for not posting for a few days... Here's a brief recap of what happened:

Saturday -

I worked the farmer's market in the morning. Here's a video. In the afternoon I went for a bike ride along the Paul Bunyan trail from Lake Bemidji State Park down to Paul Bunyan and Babe and back. Here's a video of me at the infamous statues in Bemidji. Here's a photo:

Sunday -

We had a lazy morning. Had pancakes for breakfast and then I partook in their religious service. The family I am staying with is Quaker. Because there is not a large community here they hold service each week at their home with only their family. They do a 30 minute music session where they stand around the piano and sing as Paul, the husband, plays. After that they spend 30 minutes in silent meditation. It was a new experience for me and spending time meditating each week actually sounds quite nice. The one thing about their Quakerism that I've really enjoyed is that before each meal we sit in silence holding hands and express our gratitude however we would like (silently) before the meal begins. Then, the person who made the meal squeezes the hands of those they are sitting next to until everyone is squeezing hands. It has been a nice moment for me to think each day about an experience from that day that I was grateful for. Here's a picture of the family that we took on Sunday:

Left to Right: Hannah (18), Li (13), Paul, Becky, Me

Monday -

We harvested CSA shares in the morning, as usual. In the afternoon, Hannah, Paul, and Becky left to take Hannah to Carlton to start college. How exciting for everyone! I can't remember what I did in the afternoon.....

Tuesday -

I was in charge of the farm all by myself! That meant I had 1 dog, 5 cats, 40 cattle, 50+ chickens, 1 turkey, goldfish, a snake, a turtle, a salamander, and many, many chicks in my care. It was the craziest think ever! I found an entire family on chicks - chicks we didn't know were hatching. I also found a nest of eggs, 10 in all. Here is the family of chicks that I found that we didn't know about:

I was also tasked with keeping me eye on some chicks that we were expecting to hatch. Int his photo you can see three of them, two very clearly and the third just poking out from under momma in the front left.

In the morning on Tuesday I went for the Wilderness Drive bike ride around Lake Itasca State Park. The bike ride was beautiful but had more hills than I anticipated and I did not find it to be as relaxing as I'd hoped. I would maybe do it again, I'm not sure at this time. I did stop a Peace Pipe Vista and saw the following plaque. I thought I'd share since it has some pretty cool facts about MN on it:

Today/Wednesday -

Today was a very exciting day as far as farm life is concerned. This morning Paul and I went to check on the chicks there were hatching int he barn, pictured above where the mom is sitting on her chicks. We found that 5 had hatched of the 15 eggs. As we were gathering the unhatched eggs we realized 1 was still alive. Paul decided to hatch the egg himself and what we found was a folded up, wet, slimy, scrawny (in my opinion) chick that was healthy as can be. Here's a photo:

The chick was very cold so we brought it in to warm it up with the hair dryer. Here's a video and here's a photo:

After the chick was mostly dry this is what it looked like:

Then, in the afternoon today, we did bee keeping!!! This was a crazy experience. We are going to be harvesting the honey on Friday so today we had to put in special bee blocker things in the hives so the bees can only leave the area where the honey is and not get back in. This will (hopefully) ensure that on Friday when we go to get the honey out there are no (or only a few) bees in there. Here are a few photos. Please note, that in the photos with the bees I am not using a zoom feature on my camera. I am actually that close to the bees!

The queen bee is in this photo. She's in the middle but I'm not sure how to point here out in this blog photo... She's the bee that is about 1.5 times longer than the other bees and doesn't appear striped. Another bee is slightly covering her back. Hope you can find her. Where's Waldo anyone?

Me in bee gear. In this photo you can see I'm wearing the bee veil and gloves. I'm also wearing a white shirt. On the bottom, however, which you can't see I'm wearing jeans and dark rain boots. To bees, dark clothes apparently make you look like a predator. 

Inside the hive. Bees EVERYWHERE!

So that was crazy! I didn't get stung at all which was fantastic. Thank god for the gloves and the veil because I did have bees landing on my hands/arms and flying around my face. None of them were looking mad/like they wanted to sting, but I'm VERY happy I had the protective gear nonetheless.

Okay, off to bed now since I'm going to be up early tomorrow harvesting for the CSA. Night!

Itasca State Park

So today I went to Itasca State Park. I got there about 9 am, hoping to get a kayak and get in the lake early but I found out when I arrived that the rental place didn't open until 10am. With this new found hour of time, I biked down to the headwaters and took two videos. Find them here and here. The first video is of me (and now you) crossing the rocks at the Headwaters. The second video is a panoramic view of what you can see while you're crossing.

Here a few photos from the headwaters:

At about 10 I rented a Kayak and took to Lake Itasca. I thought I would be out there about an hour and a half. I didn't take anything with me though, no phone, no camera, etc... so I didn't know how long it was actually taking me. I didn't get back until 1 pm and by that time I had gotten myself sufficiently sunburned! The Kayak was very nice, however, and I would highly recommend it if you're going to visit Itasca State Park. And it's only $6/hour so it's very reasonably priced. Here's a short video.

After my Kayak adventure I was quite tired and was no longer feeling up for a bike ride around the park. Instead I went to a few of the visitors centers (where I bought a t-shirt to protect my now red shoulders) and stopped at a view point along the road, Preacher's Grove. Then I did go for a short hike, maybe 2.5 miles total, up to Fire Tower. Here's a shot of what it looks like from the ground:

A gentleman that I encountered during my climb told me it was 138 stairs high. I forgot to count myself as I was trying not to cry!

Here's a link to video of the view from the top.

Okay, that's all for today folks! Chat soon!

Zucchini Bread, Sundried Tomatoes, The Mississippi River, CSA Shares, Lake Bemidji State Park

Okay so I have to do a quick update on two days since I didn't post yesterday....

So yesterday we processed tomatoes in the morning and put some in the dehydrator to make sun-dried tomatoes (which I just tasted a few hours ago and boy, are they delicious!). Then we made zucchini bread with chocolate chips and walnuts. It was okay. It wasn't as moist as I tend to like my quick breads but it was good nonetheless. In the afternoon yesterday we did some vegetable harvesting in advance of CSA day today and I also went for a bike ride down the local roads. I made it to the Mississippi river and where I was the river was super skinny, how weird when I'm used to seeing it much wider. Here's a few pictures from the County Road 5 in Beltrami County where it crosses over the Mississippi:

Today I was up early harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and spinach for the CSA boxes. I have never picked so many tomatoes in my life, and they just keep coming! I swear as I'm going down the row, after I've picked the ripe tomatoes off of a plant, the other one's ripen and I have to do it all over again!

After we had all the CSA boxes packed and had eaten lunch, I headed out for Lake Bemidji State Park. It's just beautiful there. I went for a nice jog through the woods on the trails. As I was jogging I was thinking to my self, it's really weird that I'm not more creeped out right now by being in the woods all by myself without a phone. I find this especially interesting since one day I was walking near my apartment in the Lowry Hill/Kenwood neighborhood, down the trails that go under 394, thinking how it would be a great place to dump a body (I watch a lot of crime shows....). After that thought I wasn't ever able to go down there again. Apparently I find the city (where there's people everywhere) to be much creepier than the woods (where no one's around). Either way, enough of that!!!

Here's a link to a short video from my time in the state park today.

I started reading Anne of Green Gables today. I've seen the movie probably dozens of times but never read the book. I'm about 50 pages in and loving it! I think it helps that I have a vague recollection of the movie. It's helping me paint a clearer picture in my mind.

 Tomorrow I'll be going to Itasca State Park. I plan on doing some kayaking in the morning and hopefully a bike ride around the lake in the afternoon. I'll try to get some good videos and post them for you all to see.

Best!

Market

Today we were at a Farmer's Market in town (Bemidji), selling our produce. We were there for 5 hours. It wasn't super busy but I was able to finish my latest book, actually the my book club book for this month, Seating Arrangement by Maggie Shipstead. I thought it was a good book, so good pick Caroline :). This morning before market I went for a bike ride just down the road and back. Saw some cattle and some horses on my bike ride. They all looked at me with confusion as I'm sure they don't get a lot of people biking down these back county roads. We just put a carrot cake in the oven so I'm just waiting for that to bake.

Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow.... In the evening we will be harvesting beans and tomatoes for Thursday's CSA drop but I'm not sure what we are going to do during the day. Then Thursday is CSA day again. And then Friday I'm hoping to get off, as it'a going to be very warm and I can hopefully go for a bike ride or Kayak in Itasca. I've never been to the headwaters of the Mississippi so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

That's all for now. Chat soon!

CSA Shares

Monday is CSA harvesting day. This morning I worked with Paul, Becky, Hannah, Li, and a woman who helps on the farm, Grace, harvest, clean, and pack, and delivery 15 CSA shares. Personally, I helped harvest tomatoes and spinach. Then we washed the spinach in the outdoor vegetable processing area and the weighed and packed the shares inside. After lunch Paul and I dropped off the shares in town

After getting back from town I helped cut up melon to be dried in the dehydrator and then helped with some of the cooking. Oh, I forgot to mention, I cooked grilled cheese sandwiches for the everyone for lunch today. I'm trying to make myself useful :)

That's all for now. It's a beautiful day up here so I'm going to try to get outside for a few minutes now and read my book.

Chat soon!

Hello Bemidji!

I have so much to say and so little time. This post might be a little choppy and confusing, so sorry in advance, but I want to get as much down as possible before I forget myself and so you can know all about my new, exciting farm.

So this afternoon I arrived at farm #2, Northern Light Farm, outside Bemidji, MN. Soon after I got here they had me help with harvesting Squash, Green Beans, and Tomatoes. On Mondays and Thursdays they drop off CSA shares in Bemidji. They do most of the harvest those mornings but pick some items the night before, if/when possible. With that said, tomorrow harvesting will begin at 6:30. Then around 1pm we will head out with the CSA coolers to town.

The family that lives here is made up of 4 people, Paul, the husband, Becky, the wife, Hannah, the daughter, and Li, the son. Paul teaches at Bemidji State University. Becky works for the DNR. Hannah will be starting college at Carleton next week. Li is going into 8th grade.

At this farm they have vegetables that they sell in a CSA. They also have honey bees, chickens, and beef cattle. Additionally, they have 5 pet cats, and a pet dog.

I spoke with them today about what might be in store for my time here and it sounds like I will be getting LOTS of new experiences. Two times per week we will be harvesting and packing vegetables for CSA shares. We will be rotating the beef cattle from pasture to pasture. If possible, we will be vaccinating the calfs (which I'll get to help with). Next weekend one of the chicken's eggs will likely be hatching so I'll get to see that. Paul, the husband, said we can butcher a chicken too, which I would like to see. I will also get to help construct some hives for the bees. I will get to help can and pickle vegetables. I'm pretty sure there are things I'm forgetting....

Tonight over dinner I learned there are ants that taste like lemonade. Crazy, isn't it?!?!

As a note, I am currently sitting in bed typing this post. In the room I am sleeping in there are multiple pets, including a corn snake, a 37 year old turtle, and a salamander. Additionally, there are eggs that are being incubated - I'll take a video in the next few days of my rotating the eggs and post here for your enjoyment!

Hope you were able to follow my unorganized post. I have to get to sleep now since work starts at 6:30am and that's only 8 hours from now (and I'm still sleep deprived from the fair). Chat soon!

MN State Fair 2013

So I just got back from 12+ hours at the State Fair. Probably my best fair experience to date. I went with a good group of people (my mom, dad, neighbor Jane, Jane's son William, Jane's husband Nick, my friend Cristina, and Cristina's mom Nancy), paced ourselves well on the food and shared everything, and saw lots of new things.

Food, in this order:
**Please note, everything was shared at least 4 ways**
Breakfast sausage corn dogs @ Hansen Foods
Australian battered potatoes @ Australian Battered Potatoes
Cinnamon Roll @ Oklahoma Cinnamon Roll in the Food Building
Affogato @ Minnesota Farmer's Union
Deep Fried Olives @ Fried Fruit
Onion Rings @ Ball Park Cafe
Sweet Martha's Cookies @ Sweet Martha's Cookies
Lemonade @ Lemonade and Cheese on a Stick
Porketta Pig Wings @ Mancini's
Malts @ Cattle Building
Cheese Curds @ Mouse place in the Food Building
Three Little Pigs Torta @ Manny's Torta in the Food Building
Nitro Ice Cream @ Nitro in the Food Building
Onion Rings @ Ball Park Cafe
Mini Donuts @ Tom Thumb


Activities, not necessarily in this order:
Dairy Goat Barn - Goats, Chickens, Rabbits, Ducks, Turkeys (The goats from Kara Kahl farm where I was recently WWOOFing were at the fair. It was fun to show them off to my family/friends!)
Horse Barn
Cattle Barn
Education Building
Square Dance Lessons
Fine Arts Building
Agriculture Building - Seed Art, Big Pumpkin
The Giant Slide
Grandstand
DNR Building (I greeted people as they entered and left. Some people actually thought I worked there.)
Leinienkugle's Stage
Miracle of Birth Center (A cow was giving birth this evening but it was taking forever and we didn't get to see the actual birth)
International Bazaar
Colosseum

I can't wait to go back next year!!! Love you, MN State Fair!