Happenings At The Hyatt House: A Season of Learning

WOW! Life has been so busy and crazy I have not had the time to even think about posting. Sorry about that. I have been meaning for some time now to share what is going on here.

First, taking in that family was not an adventure I enjoyed. The entire family stayed for one week. That was long enough. It was clear the father and oldest daughter, neither of whom wanted to be here, needed to leave. Their presence was causing a huge amount of problems and the father not only did not want to help with the workload, but preferred to just sleep all day long. After one week they were driven to San Antonio where we had secured a place for the 2 of them to live for awhile. The father was then able to start looking for a job. The 3 youngest children stayed with us. It was not easy being surrogate parents to kids who had never had to live by rules before. At first it was not that bad but as time progressed and they became use to living out here the situation went from bad to worse. I think if we had been provided legal guardianship of the children and they knew this was permanent, things would have been different. But as it was we did the best we could. Thanks to others we were able to send them all to a Christian Adventure Camp near here and introduce them to Jesus. The beginning of July we took them to their father who even though he is still unable to properly care for them wanted them back. So that family is back together and peace has once again returned to the Ranch.

Second, with or without children in the house, life goes on. The 3 goat kids born on the property have been growing nicely. Eventually it became necessary to sell Lawn Mower’s bucklings. The moment they were born I knew that day would come. Lawn Mower’s boys could be used as breeding bucks and each was sold to a different buyer. I used a reseller service so I have no idea who purchased them but I am assuming they went for that purpose. It also became necessary to sell off the twins, Zorro and Boots. Last January we had the twins castrated so selling them was more difficult. I placed ads on Craigslist, advertising them as pets. This area happens to be at the crossroads of several geographical areas on Craigslist. I placed the ad in one area and later while looking for something else in the San Angelo area I found someone looking for pet goats. So I contacted him and told him about the twins. Well, not many days later we loaded the boys into our homemade goat-tote and took them to their new home in San Angelo. They seemed scared but they quickly settled in to their new surroundings. On July 1^st I had 8 goats, but by the end of the month I only had 4 goats.

Now that my goat herd was down to those I planned on keeping, it was time to go dairy goat shopping. We decided at least for the time being meat goats are not for us. The problem with meat goats is they are cute and have a lot of personality, which makes it hard to harvest them for food. Dairy goats on the other hand still provide food without having to sacrifice their life. And we can later decide to harvest bucks if necessary. But goat’s milk is very healthy and yummy. So I put the word out I am looking for dairy goats. I quickly got responses from all over the state and started visiting breeders. After a few trips I settled on 3 Nubians, 2 of whom had been with a buck and therefore there is a good chance they are pregnant and 1 young doe whose growth has been stunted due to worms and other issues. Everyone seems to have settled in nicely. We are convinced one of the older Nubians is pregnant and hoping the other one will soon show similar signs of weight gain. We are treating the stunted doe for worms and GI damage naturally as much as possible. She is slowly gaining weight.

Third, last winter I read about Straw Bale gardening and when spring arrived we purchased lots of straw bales and started getting them prepared. It takes about 2 weeks to begin the composting of the bale and have it in shape to plant in. Then it is planting time. I started with one row of bales by one fence and soon as that row was planted, we purchased more bales and set up another row. I also planted in the two areas of the garden I had prepared last year. Not everything I planted has grown well, but it has been a successful gardening season.

Forth, Bambi, one of the goats that kidded this past Spring is a dairy goat. She may be petite but once she weaned her daughter, Susanna, we started getting about a quart a day out of her. We have stopped purchasing cow’s milk all together. Goat's milk is very healthy and many think raw goat’s milk is much better for people then cow’s milk is. It is also very delicious. I have been learning how to make different things, including cheese, out of the milk. It is hoped one day I will have few items I am an expert at making and will be able to generate some type of income from these goats. Or we will just use the milk to feed people who someday will be living here.

Fifth, having a garden creates one problem. What to do with all that produce. I have had the opportunity to share with others in need. I have also shared with a few folks who are not going through a difficult time. Besides sharing the bounty, I have been learning how to can. I planted 2 cucumber plants and one of them is very happy. I have for the first time in my life made pickles. I have tried 3 different recipes. Two I canned and one of them was a refrigerator dill pickle. Just today I turned a bunch of rather large pickles into both sweet pickle relish and dill pickle relish. I already canned it all and it is now cooling on the counter. This past weekend Rick made a ton of salsa and I canned it all. I have also made homemade turkey broth and got 17 jars out of it which has been canned. My butternut squash plant is doing very well also and yesterday I made a butternut squash soup that was really good. So as soon as I have all the ingredients ready, I will be making large amounts of that soup and canning it too. We won’t have everything we need to sustain us through the winter but we will have a good start.

Besides learning to can, I purchased a food dehydrator and am learning to use it. Unfortunately my solar dehydrator was damaged in the microburst last year and needs a lot of repair. I have been told some vegetables, like zucchini and yellow squash, cannot be canned. The 2 ways to preserve it is freezing and dehydrating. So that is what I want to do with all the yellow squash that has been growing in the garden.

Sixth, we now have chickens. We have laying chickens and growing chickens. Back in May my baby chick order arrived and we took on the task of raising chickens. They were so cute and noisy. At first they were in the kitchen in a large metal water trough. It did not take them long to outgrow their home and so Rick converted the 10by10 dog kennel into a chick habitat. There is no way a predator could fly in and grab a chick or crawl under the fence and grab a chick or for a chick to get out. Their coop is an old dog house.

Before we moved the chicks outside we received a call from a friend asking us if we wanted a flock of chickens. It turned out a friend in town was tired of caring for the chickens and wanted them gone. So Rick turned his attention to finishing the chicken coop as fast as possible and then we threw the dog crate in the back of the pickup and drove to town. Our friends would catch a chicken and hand it over to us and we would quickly put it in the dog crate. We left with 11 hens and 2 roosters, who have been named David and Goliath. The chickens spent a couple weeks locked in the coop getting use to their new home while Rick finished the fence around the coop. Once done, we let the chickens out. Now they enjoy their days free-ranging for bugs and greens and anything that looks good to eat and they spend their nights in the coop protected from predators. And we spend our afternoons gathering fresh eggs to eat.

And lastly, I am not the only one out here learning new skills. Recently a neighbor offered us several wild pigs he had caught in his trap. Rick butchered them and we have been eating pig meat ever since. It is really good meat.

So 2013 has been a year of firsts and a year of learning.