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First and Last Frost Dates, by Hardiness Zone

USDA Hardiness Zone	First Frost Date	Last Frost Date
1	July 15th	June 15th
2	August 15th	May 15th
3	September 15th	May 15th
4	September 15th	May 15th
5	October 15th	April 15th
6	October 15th	April 15th
7	October 15th	April 15th
8	November 15th	March 15th
9	December 15th	February 15th
10	December 15th	January 31st (sometimes earlier)
11	No frost.	No frost.

Wait a second....where's your Zone, Mama Pea?  I don't see a -2 Zone listed in this chart.

Can you believe it?  It's time for me to start planning on where the heck I'm going to start my seedlings.  Paul put up a grow light under the counter top in the kitchen a few years ago, but I really need more room.  But I have no idea where I'm going to put the new lights and shelves.  The basement is much too cold as we don't have a wood stove down there and just about anyplace upstairs (other than the kitchen counter) is a cat / dog / toddler accident just waiting to happen.  Maybe in the bedroom and tell Paul he'll have to wear one of those sleeping masks at night?

Wow, seems like the winter is just flying by!  Time to start sorting out those seed, planning your garden beds and dreaming about that first homegrown, juicy tomato!

Speaking of time flying by, Kelly over at Happy Hollow Homestead is celebrating a full YEAR of blogging by having a cool giveaway.  Go check her out and enter to win a cool look'n tote bag!

Nasties

I'm embarrassed to admit something to my blog readers.  But I feel that in order to provide "full disclosure in farming" here at Krazo Acres, I must.

My goat has lice.

When my Mom was over during our beautifully strange almost-70-degree weather on Monday, she asked why Nettie's goat was all scraggly looking.  I told her that it looks like she's been biting at her coat to scratch.  So I went up to Nettie for a closer inspection, brushing her hair back to smooth it out, then parting the hair around her top line, I finally spied a tiny black, elongated looking bug.  I plucked it off her and took a good look at it.  And it looked exactly like this:

Not my picture, but found it on the web & it looks exactly like
the bug I found on Nettie.

I gave her another quick once-over, but didn't see any more.  Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.  But just seeing that one bug, and the fact that Nettie had a dozen little spots on her coat where she was recently scratching/biting made me want to run screaming for the hills.  Lice was something "bad" farmers had.  Lice only appeared on mismanaged, unloved, unkempt livestock.

I went to get the bag of Hy-Yield Garden, Pet & Livestock Dust from the garage, made myself a homemade dusting applicator (i.e. plastic yogurt cup with crapload of holes poked in the lid) and dusted the crap out of her and the rest of her herd mates.  I did the same thing the following day, and spent more time looking through everyone's coat while "trapped" in the milk stand or on their leads while eating breakfast.  But I didn't find any more of the buggers, nor any of the supposed telltale signs of a lice infestation like bunches of white eggs attached to the hairs.

I highly doubt the bug I found was the only one, especially since Nettie was scratching in different areas on her back.  But I was a bit upset that I couldn't find any more of them as I really wanted to take one into the house (dead, of course) and get it under the microscope to properly ID the bugger.

After doing a internet search on products to deal with lice, I also learned a few things about the little skin chewing and blood sucking bastards.  If you're bored, or find your goats scratching a bit more than normal, here are some links to goat lice: Lice & More Lice.

Basically are two types of lice that frequent goats; biting lice and sucking lice (I'm pretty certain the one Nettie has is a sucking louse as it's head was in her flesh, kind'a like a tick).  And apparently they are more of a concern in the fall and winter as the summer heat and sun kills the little buggers.

Since the dusting powder does not kill any eggs, I'll have to re-apply the dust again in two weeks.  But I'll be checking her every day now while she's in the milk stand.  If there seems to be no change, I may go ahead and drench her with some Ivermectin.  I wouldn't consider going that far if she were milking, but since we won't have to worry about a milk withdrawal time because she's dried up now, that will probably be my next step.

And Mom, don't worry, goat lice do not live on people, so you can quit scratching!

Recycled hay

It was a beautiful and strangely wonderfully warm winter day on Saturday, the big red needle flirting with the 60 degree mark on the thermometer.  A great day to spend outside doing barn'ish stuff.

I put Nettie and Annette out on leads to munch on what's left of the green grass in the back yard.  I planned on giving the remaining penned goats some fresh hay, but first wanted to clean up their feeding area.  The frekking picky goats waste hay like it's nobody's business (well, except for mine as we're paying for all that wasted hay).  So every so often I have to clean out the area where I fork their breakfast / lunch / dinner and clean up the hay "unfit for caprine consumption".  I put it in one of the larger wheel barrows and wheel it around and into the goat / chicken area where I use it for bedding for the kidding pens and chicken coops.  Regardless to say, we've never been short on animal bedding.

As soon as I wheeled the barrow (?) into the goat pen, I was mobbed by Pickles, Chop Suey and Lily. Who thought that I had just brought them the most special, most delicious present in the world; hay worthy of their rumen.

No more than five minutes ago, this hay was not good enough for
them to eat.  Now it was suddenly delicious.  It's all in the marketing.

I left them with the wheelbarrow for the day.  When I went to put the chickens up for the night, Lily was laying in the wheelbarrow.  Probably pooping in it so as to really make it unfit for munching.  I don't think I could pull off another "recycling" of the hay after that.  Guess I'll have to really use it for bedding this time around.

Where'd it all go?

Here is what's left of our wood pile.  Actually, it's even smaller than that as I took that picture two days ago.

When Paul first stacked all that firewood, there were four pallets full, all about 4' high.  I remember looking at the beautiful sight in the summer and thinking to myself that it would last forever.  Well, forever came early.  And it would have been even earlier had we not been having this warm weather (again) this winter.  We're supposed to have a high of almost 70 degrees on Tuesday.

It's not like we're out of wood.  There's still this:

And this:

But I just have to get my bum in gear and haul / stack the stuff nearer to the house.  And get some serious time on the log splitter.  Maybe when it's warm this week.  If I can resist the urge to plant something, that is.

You'll poke yer eye out!

It was a beautiful day today, 59 degrees according to the little thermometer out on the back deck.  A bit squishy, but almost sixty degrees at the end of January?  I'll take it.

Grandma, Rhiannon and I were enjoying the warm weather as were the goats.  Jumping around like nutjobs, butting heads and all those other goat-goings-on.  Lily and Chop Suey were roughhousing around and Nettie came in to break things up.  But when she got in the middle of it, Lily threw her head back and poked Nettie straight in the eyeball with one of her horns.

Nettie went reeling back and I tried to get a look at her.  She was keeping the eye squinted shut and I couldn't really get a good look at it.  After about a half-hour I went back to check on her and her eye was open and luckily it didn't look like there was any damage done.

I know that this is a pretty isolated incident, and it's not like Lily meant to poke Nettie in the eye (or at least that's what I keep telling myself), but it does reaffirm my decision to strive for a hornless goat herd.  My plan was to sell Lily after she kidded with at least one doeling and to also sell Herman, her horned brother, after he was used to breed Pickles later this year.  I really do like the looks of horned goats, but I'd like to lessen the chances of any potential horn-inflicted injuries.

Chickens Check'n Out

Sunday I found a teeny-tiny egg in one of the nesting boxes.  Although I thought it could have just be a "fluke" laid by one of the older hens, maybe an egg without a yolk which isn't that uncommon, I'm pretty certain that it's a pullet egg.  Because the next day there was another tiny egg in the same  nest box.  The new girls (and guys) were hatched four & a half months ago so I guess it's about time to start keeping an eye out for eggs.....or egg hiding places.

The main reason that I first thought it might just be a tiny egg from the older hens is that it was in the nesting boxes where the older hens roost.  The newer hens still refuse to go in with the older gals so they are roosting in the small kidding pen.  If I were to find a pullet egg, I would have expected it to be in there where they roost.  I've tried hand-delivering the younger birds to the other side, but it gets really, really old doing that night after night.  And at one point I locked up the barn so the younger hens couldn't even get into the smaller kidding pen, but they just sat in front of the barn door, on the ground.   I could have left them there overnight, but I'd just as well have put a sign that said "KFC Buffet Open Tonight" as they would have been eaten by the local nocturnal wildlife.

I usually don't have this much difficulty in getting the younger hens into the main roosting area; I just close off the place they normally hang out and make sure the light is on in the main area.  Then they just "go into the light".  Not sure why this batch isn't getting it.

I've also got an excess of roosters.  There's Blackie (I just now came up with that original name), the rooster that was attacked by the no-longer-here dog.  He's a nice rooster and although he's still a little gimpy and on the lower end of the pecking order, he's still getting it on with the hens so he can stay.  Then there are two Barred Rock mix roosters, one with a limp (not my fault, I swear!) and the other is a nice big'un.  Then there's Mr. Flashy (again, just came up with that name).  And I know that there are probably another six immature roosters running around the place.  There's a young black rooster with a rose comb that has just started chasing after the hens as well as another two Barred Rock mixes and a really fugly looking one.

So.  Who to keep?  Who to eat?  I'm sick of shoveling out chicken feed like it's going out of style so at least half of the roosters have to go.  I'm thinking the limpy Barred Rock, and all the younger roosters except the black rose-combed one.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to try Susan's Chicken Taco Soup and Mama Pea's Chicken 'n Dumplings, so I've got at least two on death row.

(Stuff to go with) Soup Sunday

Yes, yet another Sunday shall pass without me posting a Soup from the Krazo Acres recipe box.

Although I didn't make one of my soups, I did end up making Mama Pea's Cream of Mushroom Soup last night.  And if you've never had homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup, I'm telling you that you are missing some seriously sensational soup.  I followed Mama Pea's recipe almost to a T.  I ended up doubling the recipe and adding two cloves of garlic.  Everyone had seconds (or thirds).

Tami over at 500 dollar tomato was yammering yesterday about her husband's buffet addiction and subsequent purchase of a package of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuit mix so that got me to thinking.  Scary, I know.

Since I couldn't manage to do an original Soup Sunday recipe, I figured I could at least crank out something to accompany a soup....namely homemade Cheddar & Garlic biscuits!

You can use Bisquick or homemade biscuit mix.  Here's a recipe for the homemade mix:

4 1/2 cups flour, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 4 Tbsp. baking powder, 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. salt.  Combine dry ingredients first, then slowly pour in the oil and mix until the consistency of, well, baking mix.

Cheddar & Garlic Biscuits

3 1/4 cup baking mix, 1 cup cold milk, 1/4 cup cold butter, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1/4 cup melted butter, parsley, garlic salt.

Cut the cold butter into several pats & then blend into the baking mix with a pastry knife or fork until it's pretty much even throughout the mix.  Then add the cheese & garlic powder & combine.  Add the milk and mix with big honk'n spoon just until blended (it will be pretty stiff & sticky).  Plop biscuits onto baking sheet & place in oven pre-heated to 450 degrees for 10 - 13 minutes.  As soon as they come out of the oven, brush melted butter on the tops & sprinkle on some garlic salt & parsley.

Mama Pea's Cream of Mushroom Soup &
Homemade Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
(Minus the butter topping & parsley, I forgot!!)

Yes, I know that you'll have leftover biscuit mix if you made the homemade recipe.  Just keep it in a zippy bag in the freezer or fridge & when you got the hankering for just a few biscuits, just add some milk, stir it until it looks biscuit'ie, then pop it in the oven.