Jacopo, Fall Harvest, Etc.

Jacopo is doing VERY well! She still needs to fatten up on her mom's milk, but she is a bouncy little terror with personality to spare! I love Zatarra (our other 2009 miniature donkey foal), but Zatarra doesn't have anywhere near the personality that "Jaca-poco" (her farm nickname) has! Jacopo has taken a liking to me, and comes running up to me whenever I go into the stall. Yesterday she even tried to follow me out when I was leaving! I love her!! As soon as she gets a little bit bigger, we are moving her in with Cappuchino & Zatarra, and combining two pastures into one large pasture (so that they all have room to play).



I can't believe it's almost September, which means Mabon - The Harvest Celebration! Interesting how you come to understand & celebrate the old pagan holidays when you are so attuned to the seasons as a farmer...I actually really enjoy this fact. My entire family (okay, all four of us) has been helping me to bring the beginnings of the harvest in! My enclosed patio has turned into a hodge podge of seed drying trays...I keep blatantly hinting at Ryan that he needs to get my new harvest/herb room built! He is going to build me tall shelves with pull-out trays for storing and drying seeds, and I am going to ask him to build me a book shelf along one wall and an apothecary-type of cupboard along another (hey, the Apothecary Inn gets an apothecary cupboard! Har de har har...). Our garden harvest (in regards to produce) wasn't as large as I had hoped, but I have come to see this year as more of a focus on saving seeds for next year's (bigger and better!) garden. We have already finished bringing in and drying the quinoa. Now we are separating the tiny grains from the rest of the plant, which is tedious work. Then, we will need to wash the grains repeatedly to get the coating of saponin off of them. My calendula finally went to seed (Calendula is FREAKY the way it goes to seed!), and is drying on dishes.

We finished harvesting all of the dill seeds, and I am on my second seed harvest of epazote...so much epazote...the basil seeds are drying, and I also have shallot seeds! Ryan and I are taking all of the black beans we picked this year and using them as seed beans for next year. Like I said, we are saving enormous numbers of herb and vegetable seed! My watermelons and squash are almost ripe, and I will be harvesting my oca and yacon in another 2 months or so. Next month, Ryan and I are planting 24 bulbs of saffron (roughly a year's supply of saffron for 1 household - though I doubt we'll use it all ourselves!), and I am also trying out some Salsify (the root is supposed to taste like oysters). We planted our fall crops of arugula, fennel, and kohlrabi - to name a few - at the beginning of the month. I am also busy drying medicinal herbs for storage through the winter, and kicking myself for not having my calendula/comfrey salve ready after my latest kitchen knife accident! Ah well...Ryan and I have decided to start selling our excess seeds under our Apothecary Farm name. I keep telling him I want to get a nursery license someday and start selling plants and such on a larger scale. I'm practically there anyway, and at the rate we are going it may be a necessity soon! :P

And of course harvest season means canning season! (As well as beer-making/liqueur-making

season!) I am going to pick another couple of gallons of blackberries tomorrow, and I need to pick a few more flats of peaches for canning/preserves before the season ends. My peach-rosemary jam, and my blackberry-basil-cinnamon jam have been in high demand at the B&B. It's been selling like crazy, and I can barely keep it in stock!

APOTHECARY FARM JACOPO!

Circle C Chicklet gave birth to a beautiful foal last night at around 8:30 pm. This foal is charcoal gray with no light points. The name "Jacopo" comes from the Count of Monte Cristo. Our other miniature donkey foal from this year is named "Zatarra."

This marks the end of '09 baby season! We made it!! HURRAY!

Eight Hundred Books & Counting...

Ryan and I had a blast last weekend at this huge warehouse sale full of thousands of books! Apparently, these people bought out a used book store, and now, years later, were themselves trying to get rid of their stock. All hardcovers were $1, and all paperbacks were 50 cents! It was like going to heaven for Ryan and me!! We didn't have much money, so we couldn't snag as much as we wanted ("We'll take it ALL, please."), but we did get about 12 books on antiques, a gorgeous hardcover edition of Les Miserables, some classics not yet in our collection, a history of art, and many other interesting books. I also snagged two "collector" books (there was a fortune in antique books alone at this sale). One of them was printed in 1898, and in the inside front cover was signed by someone w/a quill pen and dated 1902! The other antique book I picked up was a school book on astromony from the early 1900's. It has a gilt-stamped picture of the sun on its cover. I love books...can you tell? ;) In some ways I hate having to run a professional B&B (and thus keep the house clean!), because there is nothing that makes me happier than having piles and piles of books in the livingroom, and sitting on the couch reading through each one. I guess, if given the opportunity, I would happily become one of those hermit-scholars whose house was crammed top to bottom with piles of books! I think I'm seriously on my way there at any rate...

In other news, we moved Madame The Chicklet (or "Chick-le-potomus" as Ryan likes to call her) into her foaling stall yesterday. Poor thing was totally freaked out at being separated from the other donkeys, but Cappuchino (Chicklet's best friend in the next stall/pasture) was over-joyed to see her buddy again. It was really cute. I am excited for Chicklet's foal ("Jacopo") to arrive!

After Many Deep & Profound Brain Things Inside of My Head...

The above title is an example of irony, as it's 6 am and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

Even though today is Ryan's day off from work (and we don't have any B&B guests to worry about), we are still up early in the morning. The reason: we promised my Grammy we'd take her yard sale hopping today (or "slumming" as I like to refer to it) to get her out of the house and away from Grandpa. She's hoping to find a dresser, and Ryan and I are hoping to score some more books for our library.

I have started making some "Healing" salve this week. I have been harvesting calendula, comfrey, and chamomile in large amounts out of my garden this month, so yesterday I put 2 parts calendula/comfrey and 1 part chamomile in a jar with olive oil and set it in a sunny window. I will leave it there for three weeks, at which point I will strain out the herbs, mix it with Beeswax and a little Vitamin E, and have a wonderful skin-healing salve! I also need to get started on making my herbal shampoos (rosemary) and facial toners (sage & apple cider vinegar). So much to do during harvest season! Speaking of harvesting, Ryan and I harvested our first crop of asian pears yesterday. So exciting! I love being able to live almost entirely off of our land!!

Well, on another note, Ryan and I made the first step toward expanding our art collection!! Those who have been to our B&B realize that we collect original oil paintings. I inherited an enormous number of original oil paintings from relatives several years ago, and Ryan and I have always said that we want to continue adding paintings to our collection. Because we are generally stretched to the wire money-wise, we really haven't been able to afford more than two paintings in the 3+ years we have been together. There was the oil painting of the old barn that Ryan bought for me for our first Christmas together! There's a sweet story in that painting: on one of our early dates, he took me to an art gallery (because I do so love paintings), and walked around with me and asked me which paintings I liked best and why...well, several days later, he went back to the gallery and bought the only painting that I liked that he could afford (he spent his entire paycheck! Lovestruck, anyone?) - a small oil depicting an old barn. He even got a chance to meet the artist while he was paying for it! So that was the first painting we bought (it now hangs over our bed in our "Innkeepers' Quarters"), and the second was a beautiful painting of a milk can with flowers that I saw & fell in love with at an antique store. Ryan didn't adore it the way that I did, but he let me buy it anyway. That one now hangs over my computer desk. Those were the only two paintings we had purchased thus far...well, last week Ryan and I went browsing at the Antique Mall in Medford, and fell in love with a GORGEOUS 7 foot long oil by YW Leung. I will forever remember the moment: I had been awestruck by the painting from the minute we walked into the booth. Ryan had been so focused on an antique knife on a stand under the painting (just like a man! *laughing*), that he didn't even notice the artwork. He said, "I love this knife!" and I replied, "I love this PAINTING!" At which point Ryan stepped back and looked up and gasped. That is the moment I will always remember. We both decided that we absolutely had to have it! This was the first time in our life that we BOTH loved a painting (it's usually just one or the other). The enormous oil is of a fleet of Chinese ships at sea, and the artist used reds and oranges in such a way (so it's either dawn or dusk) as to make it appear as though the ocean was on fire! And the painting is done in the style that I ADORE (the same as the "Three Ballerinas" in our dining room): big, thick brush strokes that look like chaos when you stand close, but from afar show an enormous amount of detail! The picture is going to look breath-taking on our deep red livingroom wall!! Anywho, the price was more than fair, but even so, we had to put it on layaway and will be making payments on it. I can't wait to bring it home!

Precious Moments...

Zatarra heehawed for the first time today!!! It was so exciting! She does not sound as delicate as I would have expected something so small and dainty to be - more like a cross between Covey's honking bray and Moonie's squeal. Either way, I am so happy and proud! Ryan and I have been anxiously awaiting Zatarra's first call, and taking bets on what she'd sound like (I was hoping for another fog horn like her mommy)!

A Quick Breath...

We just finished with our first set of guests this past 4th of July weekend (Fri-Mon). They were REALLY nice people, and we couldn't have asked for a better set of guests to "break us in." They were polite, considerate, weren't too picky about food, left from about 10 am to 10 pm every day (so Ryan and I had time to ourselves and didn't feel completely overwhelmed), and slept like the dead. The last part came in VERY handy during the unfortunate incident on the first morning involving smoke detectors and scorpions. No, I am not going to tell that story right now. It's best saved for another day...

We are booked for the 2nd guest room on July 16-18, and the main guest room on July 24 & 25th. I am hoping to get at least one other booking for the month of July. *fingers crossed* Not too shabby for not even having paid for advertising yet! I have been monopolizing a lot of free online advertising...you would be surprised how much is out there if you take the time to look! And it helps to befriend the local businesses and have them put you on their websites!

In other news, Zatarra is getting big, and Ryan and I have finally begun socializing her. This involves catching her & petting her (I know, I know, what a terrible thing! Petting my baby donkey!). I felt bad the first time though: she cowered in a corner with her tail between her legs while Ryan and I petted her! :( I know she'll learn to love us in time, but I felt like a BAD PERSON when she did that!!! Speaking of baby donkeys, Chicklet is due ANY day now, and Ryan and I are racing to temporarily fence that 4th barn pasture for her. We can't afford to fence it the way we will eventually (which we calculated will cost ~$800 in fencing and T-posts), but we have about 80 feet of leftover fencing and 10 posts, and we are going to create a temporary foaling pasture that we will take out later. We've been so busy getting the B&B stuff in order that we completely forgot about Chicklet. I checked the calendar yesterday and went, "Oh NO! Chicklet is due on the 15th!!!" This is about typical for Ryan and I during the summer, I have decided. We talked, and next year we are only going to breed goats (and plan to have them kid BEFORE summer tourist season starts!). We are going to take a year off from donkeys. I can't do both AND run the B&B! It's too much!!

Who Can Take a Sunrise

Sprinkle it with Dew...

Well, my to-do list today (after watering the garden and landscaping...which usually takes anywhere from 1 to 4 hours of my morning) includes sewing a new set of curtains for the Apothecary Suite (made out of the same material as the couch I re-upholstered), cleaning the suite's bathroom, and picking up the clutter on the living room coffee table (currently my "herb reference area" - which is fancy talk for saying that I have taken over that portion of the furniture with piles of my many plant-related texts). Yesterday I made an enormous batch of homemade granola for the guests, and this morning I baked my healthy blueberry breakfast cake w/lemon & apricot topping. Ryan's picking up the Apothecary Suite comforter from the dry cleaners today, and getting some more Good Bean coffee (the only coffee we drink/serve here!) for the guests. Speaking of herbs, my plant babies are doing remarkably well! My sage sprouts are healthy and vigorous, and my madder plants are taking over. I need to transplant more of the sprouts (out of the germination trays and) into larger pots so that I can germinate my carob seeds! I am still on the waiting list for cinnamon seeds. The wait is projected at 6 months - they obtain the fresh seeds from Zanzibar twice a year, and I missed the most recent batch. My Mexican Tarragon (also known as psychoactive marigold) is doing well, and my calendula has so many blossoms that I can barely keep up with harvesting them all! Currently, I have racks and racks of them drying in several rooms around the property, as well as the wild chamomile we have been harvesting for months now (we probably have about 2 acres worth of the stuff). One of my juan canary melon plants has a teeny tiny yellow flower on it! Yesterday, I picked a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes and pineapple tomatillos and ate them fresh from the garden as I went about morning chores. I love harvest time! This year, I actually managed to get all of my tomatoes planted at the correct time (unlike last year where I planted too late and didn't allow enough time for the tomatoes to actually ripen ON the vine), so I am already eating tomatoes! Yay! We are between berry harvests right now: our first crop of ever-bearing strawberries has finished, and now we are waiting for the next batch of flowers to turn into fruit. We just finished harvesting our early raspberries and blueberries, and the blackberries are not ripe yet. Now we will have to wait for our fall crop of raspberries and blueberries. My non-remontant heirloom roses have finished blooming, but the modern ones are still putting out some gorgeous flowers. Some of my favorites are the Dragonsblood & Pinata varieties I have planted around the house. I need to cut some and put them in vases for the guest rooms...there are so many little touches I like to add to make people's stay here more enjoyable.
It's about time to move Cappuchino and Zatarra out of the foaling pasture and to move Chicklet in. Scary!! I don't think that I am ready yet to do another batch of weeks and weeks of staying up all night watching the barn camera (only to have the foaling happen in the pasture). Thankfully, this is the last baby of the season. We will be breeding our nigerians around September/October (which means we are drying off the does in August), for March 2010 kids. I don't know if we will breed any donkeys this year. That's still up in air... Well, off to work!

Gearing Up for July...

Ryan and I are gearing up for July and our first set of guests for the weekend of the 4th. We had a bunch of last-minute details to finish on the Apothecary Suite (finishing up the base moulding, installing curtain rods, etc.), and we spent most of yesterday accomplishing our to-do list. It turned out to be a bit larger of a list than we expected, as we kept remembering little details that needed tending. Now everything is perfect and ready to go! Today we are going to get our grocery shopping done, as I really don't want to be out and about much later this week with all of the crazies coming out of the woodwork due to the impending holiday.

We finally found a good home for Michele and Pearl (two of our llamas up for adoption). We really liked the family, and I think that our girls will have a good & happy life at their new home. It was very difficult to say goodbye to them, but I managed not to cry, and in any case, I knew that this would happen eventually...we have 10 llamas, and they are eating us out of house and home! We simply can't afford to feed them all. Michele is a pack llama with some experience, and we gave the family a pack set-up (as well as a book on llama care!), and I have a feeling that they will take Michele backpacking soon. That will be a fun experience for all of them! Comet is still up for adoption, but I have not yet been able to find his "forever" home...

We are still attempting to get our advertising scheme figured out. Everything is so expensive, and we can't afford to do much, so we are trying to figure out the best "bang for our buck." As soon as we are able, we are going to get on the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce website, and hopefully the Britt Festival website. In the meantime, we are online, and we also have fliers at almost all of the local wineries.

I have the breakfast menu figured out for our first set of guests. We'll have to buy a bit more at the grocery store than I originally wanted, as we are inbetween berry crops right now (just finished the first strawberry harvest and are waiting on the early raspberries and blueberries), but all of our herbs and other dairy items will be fresh out of the garden! Of course, each breakfast includes our daily snack bar (set out at 7:30 am for those earlier risers), which consists of fresh (strong!) Good Bean coffee ("Midnight") w/choice of goats milk cream or skim goats milk, fresh sourdough rolls, homemade strawberry jam, goats milk cream cheese, butter, orange juice, fresh fruit from the garden/orchard, and more! I have decided that the breakfast for the first set of guests (we generally do two courses, the first one being smaller, and generally sweeter, and the second being more wholesome and filling) will be:
Day 1, Course 1: Healthy Blueberry Breakfast Cake w/lemongrass & a glass of Mango Juice
Day 1, Course 2: Lemony Quinoa w/Maple-Sauteed Apples

Day 2, Course 1: Individually-sized watermelons scooped-out and filled with melon balls, fresh raspberries, and mint
Day 2, Course 2: Apple-cranberry Pancakes w/Lemon Thyme and a side of our homemade applesauce (from last year's apple harvest)

Day 3, Course 1: Ginger-Pear Breakfast Muffins w/Mango Juice
Day 3, Course 2: Granola w/Fennel Seeds, Pecans, & Blueberries topped w/fresh goats milk yogurt

I went over to Pickety Place in Jacksonville (LOVE that little antique store!), and got a set of 4 vintage linen placemats for $5 to set the table with. My original white placemats have been defiled by a number of messy family members (my husband included, in an unfortunate incident involving a beet salad...*sigh*), and needed replacing.

Well, off to run errands now!

Herbs, Rocks, & Scorpions, Oh My!

Ryan and I have decided that we do not have enough projects (sense the sarcasm?), so we are going to turn the old baby goat pasture (directly behind the solarium) into a new formal herb garden. This herb garden will have four raised beds marking the Four Corners, and a center lavender/heirloom rose bed with statue. We have been hauling river rocks up from the ravine on the far side of the property to make the raised beds, and have been filling the beds with our very own compost mix (which we - big surprise - have in large supply!). It's been backbreaking work, but Ryan and I have been immensely enjoying ourselves. It's a bit like playing "Fort" for grown-ups! Although, no one else we know seems to think this...All of our friends have become mysteriously "unavailable" since we have begun this project...? Anywho, Ryan has estimated that between the two of us we have hauled about 2 tons of rock thus far. We have three of the raised beds finished (1 culinary and 2 medicinal). The third bed will be for raising herbs used in natural dyes. We will hand-tear-out all of the grass and weeds, and lay gravel down on the walk ways in between the raised beds. We are going to dismantle the old baby goat shelter, and rebuild it in another pasture for the angoras to use. Then, we will landscape the area that the shelter used to be into a beautiful walkway to the site of our future trout pond. I have been training my multitude of grapes and climbing roses to take over the ugly old wooden fence that lines the baby pasture, so that instead of the fence all you will see is green and pink! Everything is going to look truly gorgeous when we are finished!

Speaking of rocks, we have discovered where the local scorpion population on our property is located! I always thought that scorpions in southern Oregon was a bit of a myth, but apparently not! Pretty much every single rock we turned over as we hauled them out of the ravine housed at least one (more often two or three) little dark brown scorpions. I am happy to say that I was already wearing very thick leather gloves!!


Now that three of my raised beds are complete, I have begun to plant in them! For those who don't know much about me: I am at my absolute happiest when I am covered in dirt, playing in my garden and talking to my plants. I have transplanted my five valerian plants, and 4 of my 5 comfrey roots, into one of the medicinal beds. I am currently in the process of transplanting my newest batch of sprouts: chives, lemon mint, lavender, red bergamot, elecampane, white horehound, black mustard, epazote, stevia, toothache plant, marsh mallow, black cumin, coriander, arnica, mexican tarragon, and dotted mint. I am still waiting for my chaste tree and cramp bark seeds to germinate. I have had excellent luck with my madder seeds, which will be going into my dye garden as soon as it's completed in the next few months. I am also waiting for my angelica, meadowsweet, and gravel root seeds to germinate. As I have mentioned many times previously, Ryan and I are trying to be as self sufficient as possible, and one of the ways that we try to accomplish that is by growing 99% of all of the herbs and produce we need. That is yet another reason that people will enjoy staying at our bed and breakfast: practically everything we serve comes out of our garden or fresh off of the farm! We have dairy goats and chickens, as well as a large orchard and garden, and an enormous selection of culinary and medicinal herbs! We produce our own line of all-natural home grown & processed botanicals (soaps, lotions, teas, tinctures, etc.), which we stock our guest bathrooms with. Speaking of the garden, it's really going to be phenomenal this year! Ryan and I worked incredibly hard to put in the largest garden yet this year. We have just finished harvesting our kohlrabi, arugula, spinach, heirloom lettuce, peas, and fava beans. There won't be any new crops until fall. Now we are waiting on our bean crop (we put in SIX large beds with Dragons Tongue, Black Turtle, Kentucky Wonder, Liana, Painted Lady, & Lima Beans), squash, 25 cucumber plants (representing three different varieties), 5 cantaloupe plants, 8 Moon & Stars watermelon plants, as well as beets, turnips, quinoa, and corn. I just planted our first batch of Red Garnet amaranth about two weeks ago, and it's finally germinating. In another week or two I will plant the second batch of amaranth (Hopi Red Dye). The plums, apples, and pears are ripening on the trees, and we are at the tail end of our strawberry harvest, and just beginning our blueberry & summer raspberry harvest. In another month the blackberries will probably be ripe too! I love summer! Ryan is thinking about possibly setting up a small produce stand on the property to help us stay on top of the harvest season. I agree with him that we will most likely have more fruits and vegetables than we will know what to do with! Nothing wrong with that! ;)

Aging Hippies Need Skin Care Too!

Salutations, Everybody! Just wanted to let you know that the "soap bug" has hit the Garrett household again (after remaining dormant for several months, until sheer necessity - who wants to buy STORE soap??!!! - forced us out of our funk and back into gear!). I need to tweak with the scent a bit for the next time, but this current batch is a mixture of white lotus and patchouli, with hints of rose geranium and bergamot. We have made the soap with half olive oil and half sunflower oil - something we haven't done before - and we also added powdered marsh mallow root. Both of these new ingredients act as emollients, softening dry, irritated skin. Due to this fact, and the mixture of scents, we thought that "Aging Hippie" was an excellent name for this batch of soap! After all, even aging hippies need the occasional, all-natural, skin pampering...

Next week, we have plans to make more of our Cinnamon-Orange-Spice soap (which was very popular last time), and from there I think I will move on to more 3 Kings Antibacterial (an excellent farm soap!) and possibly some Dragons Blood (a new batch).

Take care, and stay clean!
Jillian

Zatarra's Big Adventure - and other General Madness - at the Apothecary Inn!

Yesterday morning was one of those days where you wake up and immediately wish to go back to sleep. Normally, our alarm goes off promptly at 5 am, and Ryan repeatedly hits the snooze button until 5:30 am rolls around. This morning was one of the few mornings we were actually going to be able to "sleep in" (i.e. get up at 6:30 or 7 am!...Rather pitiful, isn't it?), and I was planning on enjoying every minute of it. Ryan finally pulled himself out of bed at around 7 am, and crept upstairs to make me my morning coffee. He had plans to bring it to me in bed (my idea of romantic). Unfortunately, those plans were shot down when he looked out of the window as he was pouring water into the coffee pot and saw a small dark streak racing around the 4th barn pasture. For a moment, he was terrified it was some sort of predator about to attack Cappuchino, but then he realized it was a very much escapee baby donkey!! He shouted an expletive that I will not repeat here, which promptly woke me up and had me racing upstairs to see what was going on. We put our shoes on and ran outside. Zatarra is still a bit skittish around people, so she wasn't easy to catch. We ended up opening the gate to the pasture and shoo-ing her back inside. Her mother (Cappuchino) had a look on her face that said "You are in SO much trouble, Young Lady!!!" I honestly don't know whether Cappuchino was more upset about her baby escaping, or if she was mad because Zatarra got to play in the big pasture full of tasty grass without her! Either way, Zatarra got a little bit of a donkey-style lecture. Ryan and I figured out that the last time we had gone into the pasture, we hadn't latched the gate tightly enough. Zatarra had managed to squeeze herself through the gate and fence and race outside, but was unable (or, more likely, unwilling) to squeeze back inside.

In other news, we were finally able to find a good home for Michele and Pearl. It's so heartbreaking to have to say goodbye, but I really like the family who is adopting them, and I am very happy about the fact that we were able to adopt them out together. We originally tried to sell them, but with the economy so slow, no one was in the market for show-quality llamas. Finally, we decided to adopt them to an approved home. I feel confident that we have made the right decision. I never expected to have to sell/adopt out any of our original animals - the thought of selling some of our babies born every year was difficult enough for me! - but we have been going through about 2 tons of hay per month, and with the rising cost of hay (and our other bills), we just couldn't afford to keep all of our animals. We have ten llamas at the moment, and those llamas eat as much hay per day as all of the other farm animals on the property combined. It's a bit ridiculous! Anywho, we are still looking for a "Forever Home" for Comet the Wonder Llama. I thought I had found it, but the lady backed out. So, back to the drawing board...in the meantime, I get to enjoy being with my four-legged friends a little bit longer...

Apothecary Farm Zatarra!

Our long-awaited miniature donkey foal has finally arrived! Apothecary Farm Zatarra (Dam: Circle C Cappuchino, Sire: Windcrest Little Dynamite) has gorgeous conformation, and is a deep chestnut brown w/light points. After careful consideration, we have decided to retain her in our breeding herd. Look for her cross with Wannabe Ranch Moon Shadow in three years!

We are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of our next miniature donkey foal, Apothecary Farm Jacopo, out of Circle C Chicklet later this summer...

OCA!

My oca has finally begun to sprout! I was worried that, even though I had been keeping it in our enclosed porch/sunroom/makeshift greenhouse, the recent frosts we'd had might have killed it. But my little tubers are happy and healthy! Oca is related to the wood sorrel. For more information, you can check out this article on mother earth news:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2007-08-01/Hot-to-Grow-Oca.aspx?page=2

The New "Pad"


Ryan and I finally moved into our new "Innkeepers' Quarters," and the place looks FABULOUS! Hats off to our two very talented contractors! Here are some pics of the place as we were moving in...

Moving Day Approaches...


I can't believe that we are going to be moving into our new (downstairs) Innkeepers' Quarters this weekend! It's finally happening!!! - And it sure feels surreal...
The downstairs looks REALLY gorgeous! When I walked down there the other day, I stared around me in open-mouthed wonder. "This is NOT my house!" I cried out to Ryan, "This looks like something out of one of those fancy remodeling magazine pages!!!" It really is beautiful...the dark wood flooring, pastel-hued walls, white beadboard, and Victorian rosette mouldings really just MAKE the room! We picked the paint colors to match the patches of light blue found in the bathroom tiles. Speaking of tile, my contractor is taking some of my beloved fossil fish (that I dug myself many years ago in Wyoming!) and incorporating them into a band of tile in the shower...I think that is just so cool!!! :) Of course, if we ever move, I am going to be heartbroken over the loss of my fishes...Ryan will have to take me fossil hunting so that I can collect some more!


Now that Grandma and Grandpa have moved into their place (privacy! hurray!), and our quarters are almost done, Ryan and I finally have some time to spend just being young and in love...it's been a whirlwind of activity lately (revolving around either remodeling or farm chores), and we haven't had time to just BE together. We both miss that, and have determined that this next weekend, we are going to take one day to just HANG OUT! Ryan is my husband and my best friend, and I miss spending quality time with him.

Next week, the contractors will finish tearing out the kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms...dum dum duuuuuuuuuuuuum! ;P

ABOVE: Beginning to tile walk-in shower

ABOVE: Bathroom tile design (raised platform is where clawfoot tub will rest)

Opening up a bed and breakfast has been a dream of ours for many years. We love cooking, and were excited to try out a business that would allow us to utilize that particular skill (without dealing with the insanity of a full-blown restaurant). We had so many good ideas that we wanted to implement into our own B&B, and when we made the decision to move to Oregon three years ago, we could barely wait to get this business up & running. However, after losing two houses in the search for an Oregon residence, and "settling" on this place as a last resort, we never fully realized the amount of work that would be involved in fixing it up (not to mention the memorable fiascoes such as geysers in the front yard, snakes in the walls, etc.). The first year we moved here, we were FAR too busy making the home livable and setting the property up for our animals to truly open up our bed and breakfast. In the second year, we were only about halfway finished with our remodeling (doing bits here and there as paychecks would allow). Still, we were trying desperately to open up the B&B in May of '08, even "half finished." And then, tragedy struck, one blow after another: in a long string of hardship, I lost my job, we experienced the death of a wonderful (and pregnant) goat that I had been excited to welcome into the herd as an "early birthday present," and several other events that simply killed our desire to do anything that summer...Then, my grandparents finally sold their home and managed to move up here, and we learned a whole new level of hardship and sacrifice. The entire reason we moved to Oregon wasn't to merely open up a bed and breakfast - it was to take care of my grandfather (who has early Alzheimers). When Ryan and I made the decision to do this, we knew it would be difficult, but we truly didn't understand what living with a person who has dementia would be like. It has been a huge learning experience since Grandpa moved here, but I would never change our decision. It's not so much that my grandfather needs us (he does, but that isn't my point), it's that we need to be here as a system of strength and support for my grandmother. I haven't seen my grandparents in ten years, and this past year has been a period of learning and adjustment. In the end, we have all come out stronger for it, and we have grown closer as a result. The animals have been truly therapeutic for my grandfather, especially baby Comet (the "problem child" llama), whom he adores. My grandmother has been enchanted with the goat babies, and loves being able to putter with me in the garden and around the property. Though all of us have made sacrifices to be here, I think we would all agree that living here has been worth it. Watching my grandfather's eyes light up when he looks out over the mountains with his binoculars, or coming around a bend and finding my grandmother elbow deep in dirt as she happily weeds, makes my heart fill with joy. After three years of adjustments, three years of hardship, this place is home; this place makes us all happy.
When I lost my job a year ago, it made the B&B dream even more of a pull - what a perfect way to earn a little extra income, while allowing me to stay home and continue to help take care of my grandparents...not to mention that running a small ranch/farm (especially in the spring) is a FULL TIME JOB! After much examining of our financial options, Ryan and I were finally able to obtain a loan for half the remodel in January of this year. It allowed us to finally begin the true (and necessary!) structural changes that we would need to open up our dream business. And now, we are so close to being finished, and the changes are amazing! Except for the large structural parts (that we needed a professional for), Ryan and I have done a large portion of the work ourselves, and we are so proud of what we have accomplished! And now, as our dream is finally being realized, and our grand opening is fast approaching, we have come to understand that it's not about having your own business and making a ton of money - it's about realizing a dream, working hard to achieve that dream, and about the crazy curve balls that life throws at you (the ones that, in the end, only make you stronger), and finally, it's about finding happiness and peace in the most unlikely situations.

Progress?

Well, this past week has been interesting! The contractors finished framing up the walls in the downstairs master suite - pantry, double closets, hall, walk-in shower, etc. - and we are hoping to get the plumber out next week to begin installing the lines for the shower, toilet, and clawfoot tub. However, we have been dealing with the joys of the home's very questionable electrical wiring (thank you, previous home owners: you were too cheap to have a pro wire your house, so instead you chose to do-it-yourself. Word to the wise: if you don't know anything about electrical wiring, DON'T DO IT!!!). We have basically had to rewire the whole house. The electrician has been out here every day, and he's still not finished! It's very frustrating...I just got handed a $3500 electrical bill today, and I have half a mind to march over to the previous owners (yes, I do in fact know where they are living now) and cram it down their throats!!! What were they thinking??! The electrician even told us that you can't even find replacement parts for the ones that the previous owners used, because they have been outlawed due to their extreme electrocution/fire hazard! Grrrrrrrrreat...

Sorry, I needed to vent...

Demo Work!

Well, the contractors have been working for over a week on demolishing the downstairs (and they've been doing a GREAT job!). They had a guy come in with a jack hammer and tear up all of the concrete so that they could lay down the new plumbing for the 2nd master bath.


Yesterday we had the plumbing inspection (yes, we are playing 100% by the book, which is VERY difficult in a county whose laws are so ridiculous that most people don't even bother anymore), and they framed out the walls for our master closet and...drum roll, please...WALK-IN WINE CELLAR! Can you tell I am excited?? Ryan and I have memberships to several wonderful vineyards throughout the valley, including an Inner Circle membership to Troon, so needless to say: we generally have a lot of wine on hand at any given moment. And let me just say that I can't wait until the remodeling is done and the house is organized, so that Ryan and I can throw a fabulous Grand Opening Celebration (and use up some of that wine!).

They should be pouring concrete over the new plumbing any day now, and then creating our master bath (which means I have to get serious about tile colors...I hate going into the tile stores - it's like sensory overload!!). We bought ALL of our interior doors (for the entire house) from an antique salvage shop in Medford. All of the hardware we managed to score either off of craigslist (where for $40 we snagged four sets of antique door hardware from a 1910 San Fran mansion!) or from that salvage shop. For our master bath vanity, we purchased (again, off of craigslist) a small antique oak dresser - which we are converting to fit sink plumbing - and a white porcelain with blue china pattern vessel sink and bronze wall-mounted lavatory faucet. We have a refinished antique clawfoot tub (another craigslist score) that we are centering under the window, and there will also be a walk-in shower in the master bath.

I am so excited for everything! It will be great to see the before and after (and don't worry - I am taking lots of pictures). Next, they will be gutting the kitchen...

More Baby Pictures
(Because I Know You Want to See Them!!!)

Ryan got some more adorable baby Troz pictures this morning. She's such a doll! Enjoy!...

Apothecary Farm SB Troz


Please meet the newest addition to our farm!

Well, we finally got our babies out of Zilla! She gave birth late last night to two kids, a boy and a girl. Sadly, the boy (named "Zort") did not make it. He was born weighing less than a pound (nigerians are supposed to weigh at least three pounds at birth), and was incredibly weak. We did everything we could - tried to get Zilla to lick him (she was ignoring him in favor of the other baby; so strange, it's like they know when one isn't going to make it), and then we cleaned and dried him off, got him warm, got him his shots and got colostrum into him asap - but after about 30 minutes he gave a little sigh and stopped breathing. Ryan and I were heartbroken. There wasn't any fluid in his lungs or anything visibly wrong with him as far as we could see, I think he was just too small to function. In any case, we are trying to stay positive and remember that we have a happy, HEALTHY, little baby girl "Troz!" She came into the world raring to go! She is brown with a white spot on her side, and white and gray moon spots on her sides and back. We are going to allow her to dam-raise, as Ryan & I decided a while back that if there was only one baby born per kidding, we could not do bottle feeding (as the baby would get lonely!). So we are going to let her nurse from/stay with Zilla, same as we did for Poit.

The Long Nights Moon...

Though technically the Long Nights Moon is the full moon in December, I feel that it is an appropriate title for my life this month. Kidding/Foaling Season is also known as "The Time of No Sleep," as most breeders are pulling long nights spent watching barn cameras and/or listening to baby monitors. In case you couldn't tell: still no babies...

GOOD NEWS!: Spoke to both our contractors yesterday (yes, we are "special" enough to require TWO!), and interior remodeling begins next MONDAY! Whoohoo!!!! :) Cost estimate is very scary however...I am wondering how in the world we are going to get everything accomplished on the budget that we have, and how we will accomplish it in the VERY short time frame alloted to us...? I am trying not to think about that right now...

Setting up animal/ranch photo shoot with very well-known equine photographer Rob Hess for this coming April. We need to get in some conformation shots of our miniature donkeys (and goats, if he's up to a challenge!). He's pricey, but well worth it. Rob Hess has photographed some of the top miniature donkeys in the world!

Yesterday, Ryan and I raced to finish fencing barn pasture #3. We moved Punkin, Breeze, Citrine, and Poit into the new (larger) pasture, and we also placed a bunch of huge wooden spools (that were previously used to hold electrical wiring) in there, so now our goats have toys. They LOVE those spools! What's great is that the spools were free! The company was just going to throw them away, and Ryan and I asked if we could have them...this is a gold mine! *laughing*

Anyhow, it's off to bed for me! I have been up for 24 hours, and I need a NAP! Gotta get that beauty sleep for the all-nighter tonight! Have I mentioned I hate kidding season sometimes? ;)

Trying to Brainstorm...


Ryan and I spent today trying to get some half decent photos to use in our B&B/breeder advertisements...the lighting was horrible today though, and the "trusty steed" was VERY uncooperative! But we have a better idea of the types of shots we want when we finally get a professional (yes, we are seeking professional help! Ha!) out here later this summer...In the meantime, we managed to get a few nice shots to use for now.

A Temporary Breath of Sanity...

Our barn camera arrived today! Hurray! I told Ryan that I was NOT (Repeat: NOT) going to endure another kidding/foaling season without one! I don't care what anyone tells you - baby monitors do not work. All of our goats kidded in the evening last year, and made nary a peep! It was a bit frustrating...This year, I am prepared! Ryan got the camera set up today in the barn. We got the IR upgrade, so that we can also view the animals at night w/o needing to keep a light on in the barn. This camera arrived just in time, too! Zilla is due any day, and Cheerio is getting close. I have a feeling we may have at least one set of goat babies before Tuesday!

MATERNITY WARD UPDATE!

Salutations! Springtime has hit a bit early here, and we are quickly making preparations for the multitude of offspring that we will be inundated with soon...it's an exciting but nerve-wrecking time here at the farm. I remember the advice given by a fellow breeder when we first began our ranch: "If you have livestock, you will invariably have deadstock." This is a sad but true fact. While we had a decent kidding (and cria-ation!) season last year, we did have a 25% mortality rate with our goats. Every day I pray for happy, healthy babies (and mothers!), and safe deliveries. Ryan and I have been reading up on how to assist with deliveries and problem births, trying to prepare ourselves as much as possible. Our vets are an hour away, so would not be much help in a real emergency. We must rely on ourselves as much as possible. I have beefed up my emergency vet kit, and I suppose I should be thankful (or maybe the mothers-to-be should be thankful?) that I have small hands...

We have been doing trial milking runs with our three expectant nigerians - trying to get them back into the swing of things. We have taught them to come out of their stall one-by-one in alphabetical order, hop onto the milking stanchion, and eat their grain. Goats are very intelligent animals, and training them to do something is quite easy (training them NOT to do something is another story!). Yesterday, when Zilla was up on the milking stand (she's the first one due on Jan 23), Ryan and I put our hands on her belly and felt a baby kick! It was so exciting and wonderful to feel a real little goat alive inside of her! We can't figure out how many babies she has in there - I am guessing two (she looks bigger than last year), but with our luck it's probably one. I just hope it's a girl! I think I would cry if all of our goats gave birth to boys, and then Ryan and I had to deal with no future milk goats and 50 million wethers. In any case, Ryan and I are looking forward to lots of adorable little bottle babies! Even though she looks like she might kid any day now, Zilla's ligaments are still present (at her tail base), which means that there won't be any babies just yet. I will check her ligaments daily, and if all goes as planned, she will be put into her kidding stall on Jan 15th, to await her due date of January 23rd.

Ryan and I have decided to invest in a two-camera barn surveillance system for our foaling/kidding stalls. That way, we can keep an eye on our expectant mothers without having to go all the way out to the stalls every 5 minutes (this is especially important for donkeys, who can actually stop their contractions if interrupted by people - they are very much a "hands off" animal when it comes to labor). This puts less stress on everyone (animals included!), and I feel that the high price of the camera system is really just a small price to pay for my sanity. I remember last kidding season I was a nervous wreck, waiting around for goats to kid. We originally used a baby monitor, but that turned out to be pretty much useless, as ALL THREE GOATS kidded without a peep!!! I remember when Zilla kidded: she had lost her ligaments THREE DAYS BEFORE (losing ligaments should mean a birth within 12 hours) and no babies or other signs of labor. We had just about decided she was merely FAT instead of pregnant, when on the evening of the third day I walked past the baby monitor and heard a tiny goat "Beheheheheheh!" I screamed "BABIES!" at Ryan and we raced out to the garage to find a little Poit-booger in the kidding box. I guess Ryan and I can count ourselves lucky that last year all the goats had easy births. I know that won't be the case every year, so a barn cam seems like a necessary investment.

Lately, Ryan has been working on building some very nice double-sided livestock feeders for our pastures. We were having issues with hay waste and food aggression, and these feeders have really helped to eliminate those problems. They are also very economical and easy to build! Good job, Ryan!

I am still working on reupholstering my couch for the office. I really need to get moving on it, as I will need to start sleeping in the barn beginning next weekend...Yikes!! I have finished both arms, but I still need to finish putting the new fabric on the couch body, and replacing the foam in the cushions...

Anywho, right now we've run into some permitting issues with the barn, so we haven't resumed construction yet (but plan to in the next couple of weeks). Interior remodeling of the main house is still scheduled to begin by the end of this month, and I am nervous and excited. It will put the house in a huge uproar, but I can't wait to see the finished product!

Hope that you are doing well!
Take care, and Happy New Year!

Jillian

December 29, 2008 - UPDATE

Salutations!
Hope the holiday season has been treating you well, and best wishes for a happy (and safe!) New Year!

While I had a free moment (i.e. before the rest of the family wakes up and the 4-legged critters start threatening to mutiny outside), I just wanted to send out an update on how things are going over at our place...
We had the unfortunate luck to be forced to fire our first contractor...I won't go into the details, but needless to say we are happy to be free! We are still waiting to get the new contractor working on the barn - the holidays sort of ground everything to a halt...The nice thing (as far as stress levels and my sanity are concerned) is that the main level of the barn (which contains the stalls, etc.) are pretty much complete - so our kidding/foaling season can be conducted in our new barn this year! YAY! We have spent the past few weeks racing to get the fencing for the four new pastures completed (we have two done and one that is almost there), and Ryan has been working to construct a little kidding stall (within one of the stalls), so that our expectant goat mommies can give birth in the presence of other goats, but the other goats can't get in to disturb the mom/babies. Try to picture a wooden frame with farm fencing and a gate, which cuts one of our barn stalls in half. Anywho, it's going to be so nice to have a barn!!!!


We have 5 animals due to give birth every month between January and June/July, and possibly 6 (as I think we will be breeding Poit in Feb/March - for an August kidding date). We have three goats between the end of January and the first of March, and then two donkeys. I am excited, but nervous. I pray every day for safe and easy kiddings/foalings. But, just in case, Ryan and I have beefed up our veterinary supplies, and I have been reading up on baby positions, etc....I guess it's a good thing I have small hands, eh?

Ryan and I have decided to bite the bullet and pay the fee for a private linear appraisal for our nigerian dwarf goat herd in 2009. I really want to find out how our bucks rate (especially Suede Boots), and I think being able to talk to someone with a heck of a lot more knowledge would be a wonderful learning experience for both of us!

We have also decided that it's high time for us to invest the money and add and jack to our miniature donkey breeding program. We have four breedable jennets (and Frieda - who is sort of a question mark at the moment), and instead of paying thousands of dollars in stud fees a year (and yes, I am being literal!), Ryan and I decided it would be well worth it to buy a jack. We have one in mind already, and are just waiting for 2009 to hit (when we'll actually have money!). We are taking out a loan for about half the cost of the home remodel, and decided we'll probably just squirrel a little money into the "donkey fund."

The good news, speaking of loans/remodeling, is that I have found two wonderful resources to keep the cost of our very large undertaking down: craigslist and the Restore in Medford! I have been able to snag antique doors for $30, pedestal sinks for $30, tile for mere cents per square foot, antique tubs for almost nothing, etc.! I have been pretty stoked! :) So, here is the list of remodeling items:
(1) We are replacing every square foot of carpet with character-grade black walnut hardwood flooring - it will really look good with our bold color schemes and antique furniture
(2) We are tearing out our kitchen down to the studs, raising the ceiling, putting up a wall and new doorway to separate the dining room and the kitchen, and repairing some of the leaky pipes and faulty venting in that area as well. For those who have seen my 70's-decorating-nightmare-

of-a-kitchen, you won't even recognize it! :P
(3) We are tearing out our two upstairs bathrooms and remodeling them - it was sort of a necessity, as the hall bathtub has a hole punched through it (which the idiotic previous owners had merely caulked over), and the master shower isn't even completely SEALED (you can see into the inside of the house), so it's got a wretched mold problem (which will be taken care of when the old shower comes out), as well as the fact that it isn't LEVEL (so trying to put down your soap on the shower ledge is always a battle of wills). I am refinishing an antique claw-foot tub, which will be put into the hall bathroom on a raised platform, and when we rip out the master shower, I am just going to tile that area and put in a base and a set of glass shower doors.
(4) We are COMPLETELY re-doing the basement: moving walls, putting in a bathroom and pantry, etc. We are basically creating a 2nd master suite (which will be for us - the "innkeepers"). I am attaching a scanned image of a hasty drawing I made, showing the general floor plan for the new basement.


That's the general scheme of things for the remodel.

I have also as of late purchased several pieces of beat-up antique furniture, which I have been patiently restoring and reupholstering. One is a couch (purchased from a VERY scary 40-year-old bachelor pad in Rogue River), which will go into my office in the barn (to sleep on during kidding/foaling season). I also have two wingback chairs and an ottoman on my to-do list...I purchased about 20 yards of Scottish-thistle-patterned fabric, which is what I have been using on the couch...it's REALLY pretty, and aptly fitting, since Ryan's background contains a bit of Scottish ancestry (maybe that's why he's so bloody HUGE! *laughing*).


I have begun my front patio landscaping project: I have planted about 12 heirloom apple trees for a small orchard, and thanks to some good friends of ours (who have a small nursery, and generously donated about 20 native trees to us), I have been able to landscape around the house with some very pretty plants! I am going to put in some more roses and honeysuckle next spring, and then I'm calling that good enough for now!

Speaking of kidding season, I have also spent many many hours updating our website, so now all of our nigerian and donkey pedigrees are up on each animal's page, and the due dates are as accurate as I can make them. I have also put up a link to my photo album on flickr, so you can see images of the new barn, as well as what I have accomplished thus far in remodeling/redecorating. The big structural remodeling changes won't begin to occur until January, but I will keep my photo album updated with pictures of that! Our contractor said that it should take about 4 months to get everything done, so we will still be able to open up by May 1st and hit the summer tourist season. I am SO excited!! It feels like this past year we've been beating our heads against a wall, just waiting-waiting-waiting (for things to start; for things to stop going wrong). I am hoping that 2009 will prove to be much more productive and fruitful! We have had a lot of interest in our B&B, and I have even had people call and ask when we will be open so that they can come and stay...so I think (hope?) that even with the economy as it is, we will still be able to do fairly well. I have a feeling that people will want to stay with us due to the unique experience we'll offer.

Anywho, hope that you are doing well! It's off to chores now! :)
Take care,

Jillian