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Keegan misses his chickens.
I’m not dead! Sorry I have been neglecting this site since there really hasn’t been much going on farm wise. Plus I have discovered a website called Tumblr which seems to suck up all my spare time, although I have met some really interesting people and learned a great deal about sustainable farming. My tumblr blog is impulsivefarmer.tumblr.com if you are interested in what I’ve been up to; I’m on it almost daily.
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Yes it is finally done! After nearly a year and a half the project house is done and officially up for sale!
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If you are interested in buying a home in the City of Plattsburgh drop me a line and I can put you in contact with our realtor.
3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a detached oversized 2 car garage. It's located in a reletively quiet part of the city. Everything inside and out is new. Link to Realtor.com Listing.
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Went to see the herd last week. The kids are getting so big! Sophie and Faye's hooves were horrible! With my sisters help I was able to get them in somewhat good shape but I will be heading down once again at the end of this month to do everyone's hooves again. I've noticed that the sheep's hooves need a lot less maintenance and are less prone to foot rot and fungal infections. More pics after the jump.
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What these people's nightmares are made of.
I received a package in the mail the other day from the Town of Plattsburgh with all the complaint letters they received pertaining to our attempt to start a small sustainable farm on my families property on Cumberland Head behind Champlain Park. So I'm going to uploading each letter and writing a response. So without further adieu here is the first post in my "People Be Stupid" series.
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When we went to load the pigs for the second time we figured everything would go a lot better then the first. We had a bigger trailer that's lower to the ground so the incline on the ramp was significantly less. We figured now that the ramp's incline was shallower Toony would just walk right up into the trailer... not. So we once again were chasing around a pig in my dad's backyard while I desperately held the rope tied to her back leg and then it began to rain.
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You really think I'm gonna cooperate? Ha!
2 Fridays ago things did not go as planned, which wasn't a huge surprise, but I didn't think they would go so spectacularly wrong. Everything started out well enough, Jeff had finished the boxes to transport the pigs in and we had my dad and our friend Yvonne to help us load them up, and then we let Toony loose. Boy was she happy to be our of her pen and because we figured she would just fallow us we didn't restrain her (not that you can really restrain a 500lb pig). She romped around for a bit and then followed us into my dad's backyard, so far so good. Then came time to go up the ramp... ya not so much. Toony would take three steps up the ramp and then jump off the side and start rooting around my dad's backyard.
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Jeff just got hired as a full time Engineering Technician at GE Transportation in Erie, PA! So it’s bye bye Plattsburgh! 

 Jeff still has to finish a rehab house that he’s fixing up and sell our house that we live in so, I will still be in Plattsburgh for a while but the animals should all be moved to Jeff’s aunt and uncle’s property by July. The pigs are actually the first to make the trip and we are hauling them down there tomorrow. We are holding off on the goats and sheep because both Sophie and Faye are pregnant the latter being due within the next week or so. It’s an 8 hour trip so we don’t want to subjugate them to the stress while they are pregnant. 

Jeff’s aunt and uncle have been nice enough to take the animals for us until we can get a place of our own. They are going to breed the pigs together and keep the piglets as payment, and if they want I will probably offer Sophie and Faye’s kids to them as well – I don’t plan on keeping them.

To transport the pigs Jeff has built two big wooden hutches that will second as movable houses for the pigs after we get them to his uncle’s (I am so HAPPY they are going to be out of their disgusting, muddy pens and onto pasture!). I’m super paranoid about the trip, but a pig farmer that we talked to said they should be fine just to make sure the hutches are well secured. (2 pigs running loose on I-90 would not be funny). I plan on taking lots of pictures of our trip and tweeting (Twitter ID ImpulsiveFarmer) as we travel (except for one area where there is no radio or cell coverage). We are loading up the pigs tonight and leaving first thing on Saturday morning. I really need to invest in a video camera because us trying to load the pigs is probably going to be hilarious. We are hoping that if we throw a bunch of apples into the transport hutches they will just walk right in, but of course nothing ever goes as planned. 

Also there is a butt load of flooding in this area right now and Lake Champlain is at a record breaking high, please keep all those that have lost their homes and have no place to go in your thoughts.
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I was going to write about slaughtering roosters and moving Flower and her lamb to the pasture with the rest of the girls, but instead I find myself needing to write about what is happening in our Battle with Plattsburgh.

Misinformed, it’s what the people that oppose our farm are and no matter what we say they refuse to let go of their preconceived notions. 
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Here is the recipe for the Irish Stew I made for St. Patties Day, it turned out pretty good. I listed at the end what I changed about the recipe.

Where I found the recipe:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/soups/r/blss32.htm

Let your crockpot do the work on this hearty Irish stew made with lamb and vegetables. This recipe may easily be converted to oven or stove-top methods.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 hours
Total Time: 10 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

•2 pounds boneless lamb cubed, browned, and drained
•2 teaspoons salt
•1/4 teaspoon pepper
•2 cups water
•1 small bay leaf
•2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch slices
•2 small onions, thinly sliced
•4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
•1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca (optional - see Note)
•10 ounces frozen peas

Preparation:

Sprinkle browned lamb cubes with salt and pepper. Place lamb in the crockpot along with water, bay leaf, carrots, onions, potatoes, and tapioca. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours, adding peas to the stew during the last hour.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Note: If you do not wish a thickened gravy, omit the tapioca.

What I Changed:

First I didn’t add any peas because I HATE PEAS! Unless they are uncooked, fresh from the garden.

Instead of using tapioca I used corn starch mixed with some water that I mixed in a couple hours before the stew was finished cooking.

I also added an extra carrot because 2 didn’t look like enough.

I then added about 1/4 to 1/3 cups of cooking sherry and a sprig of rosemary to give it some flavor.
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This week the chickens resumed laying, I found out that hay is not a good bedding to use when keeping sheep in your basement, caught a funny video of Flower and Sheena, and made Irish Stew after spending a week trying to find lamb and/or mutton.

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