100hr PiC

I was only planning on flying 0.7hrs today and leaving my 100hr PiC till next week, but the wx was beautiful today and I had to make the most of it!

Flew with my Dad for the first time (his second time in a GA aircraft). Short flight between Twin Oaks and KTMK which lies a few miles from the Pacific coast.

My first time requesting flight following with Portland DEP/APP. I was then handed off to Seattle CTR for the remainder of the short flight.

Short Final 7S3

Short Final KTMK Runway 31

Flight Planning

I've finally arrived in the 21st century in terms of my flight planning. Now using my daughter's Google Nexus 7 combined with the planning software from Garmin.

Flight Planning 21st Century Method!

Rough Sheepdoggin'

Gibson and I don't herd well, nor do we do it right. But we do work together in our own self-taught language to get the job done. Don't ever look to my videos as quality herding, but do look to them as sheep getting into a pen or into a gate wthout any snapping wolf teeth or me running around in circles (that's what Gibson is for). Now, could I just shake grain in a bucket and make them come to me? Sure. But grain costs money, and when you need to get sheep back in a pen as much as I do, you start using your collie more and more. Here he is with some of the flock.

Workshop Schedule, 2013-14

Here is a list of workshops planned for the weeks and months ahead. I'll be adding back the button on the right side of the blog so anyone can click to see the events at anytime. Workshops are a fun, comfortable, and beginner-friendly environment to learn new skills, meet like-minded people, and support my work here as a writer/blogger/small farmer. You can pay per event or if you live relatively close you can buy a season pass, which costs the price of two or three workshops paid up front for a whole year! Email me at jenna@itsafarwalk.com to sign up for a season pass or any workshop at all!

Indie Days!
These are personal workshops, private and full of one-on-one skill teaching time in everything from setting up a sheep fence to learning the fiddle. They are twice the price of a normal workshop but ten times the focus and attention.

Fiber Festival Wool Workshop!
Friday October 4th
Come spend a long weekend in Washington County, join us for a wool workshop the day before the fiber festival starts and spend the weekend putting your wool, carding, spinning and fleece buying know-how to good use. Stay for Dulcimer Day Camp Saturday if you like!

Dulcimer Day Camp
SOLD OUT
October 5th
A day camp introduction to the Mountain Dulcimer. Comes with a dulcimer!

Open Backs and Hallowed Hearts!
Saturday, Holy October 26th 2013
Learn the basics of the 5-string banjo with expert Julie Dugan! A workshop not to be missed!

Words and Wool
December 7th
Come talk blogs, writing, marketing and all things online in the farmhouse! Knitting too!

Fiddle Camp - Winter and Summer 2014
WINTER CAMP SOLD OUT
Come for a weekend and learn the Fiddle, comes with a fiddle! Most popular workshop, hands down!

Cold Antler Confidential!
Saturday Jan 18th 2014
A workshop to inspire you to act! Get That Farm!

Arrows Rising
SOLD OUT
Beltane Weekend, 2014
Come knowing nothing, leave an archer with your own bow. Nuff said.

NOTICE: Workshops are non-refundable for any reason. However, if weather or illness prevents you from attending, your credit is good as long as I am hosting workshops here so no money goes to waste!

Good Morning and a Goats Milk!

I woke up this morning and went about the usual morning chores. The temperaturs seem back to normal and the morning was somewhere in the low fifties. What is it about fall that has us reaching for our sweaters on a fifty degree morning of dapple sunlight when in March I would be tempted to don a sundress?! I suppose it depends on what season you are emerging from and after this summer of rain, heat, and sporadic/manic temperatures I find myself wanting hoodies and hot coffee. I'll take it. I'm more than ready for fall, emotionally at least. Physically I have a lot of wood to chop, chimney's to sweep, and still other odds and ends to take care of. I have packages to mail, proposals to work out, logos to finish up and all the other little tasks you never seem to forget or have time for. My life is just like everyone else's in that respect. It's different only in what causes the demands. For instance, right now I can hear Bonita bawling. She isn't due to be milked until this evening but maybe I'll take care of her sooner. She's on a 36-hour milking cycle as her bag slowly declines with the season. By October (or sooner) she will be dry and ready to be bred again. But there's a whole lot of milk, soap, and cheese between here and there. I want to have a stash of her milk frozen and put up as soap for winter before she dries up. I also want to keep enjoying the crumbly, simple, pure and wholesome cheese I make with a few drops of rennet every other day. It's a perfect time of year for the cheese, at least for this farm. Just as the pigs are getting more and more ravenous I am producing enough whey-soaked windfall apples and garden scraps to feed them for free sometimes for days without getting a grain bag open. That's a real gift from this land and the animals on it. Anyone who raises pigs know the real cost isn't the animals or the butcher's bill. It's the feed.

I think I like the idea of having cheese draining over the sink while I head north to the town of Salem to give a talk at a beloved McCartee's Antique Barn. This weekend is a big time around here, as it is the Washington County Cheese Tour! You can drive around our local cheese and dairy farms and get a real taste of the area (pun intended). We have sheep, goat, and cow dairies opening their doors to the public and offering talks and tastings. Local busineses are in on it too and that's why I am heading to McCartee's Barn to talk about my own adventures in dairy. I want folks (most probably have not heard me speak or know much about the farm) to get an introduction to me and my story, and then hear about how easy and rewarding cheese making is. I'll tell them the story that (I hope) happens after I finish this blog post. I'll talk about milking Bonita, taking the warm canister inside to strain into a half-gallon mason jar, and then heating it on the stove in a steel pot. I'll talk about checking the temperature as it crawls up between 90-110 degrees and stirring gently. I'll talk about adding a little vinegar and some drops of rennet and the amazing chemical reaction it causes separating the watery whey from the milk fats. I love this little bit of science and wonder. It makes me bristle sometimes when people use chemical as a dirty word. Water is a chemical, after all. And the reaction in the pot may not include test tubes and explosions that burn my eyebrows, but it still entertains and awes me. Cheese is in the cloth straining within twenty minutes of milking the goat. Now that's some fresh chèvre!

P.S. Gibson will also be out with me at the talk in Salem at 2PM! Come meet him!

Woodland Goats!

I'll Be Talking at the Washington County Cheese Tour Saturday!

This Saturday I am speaking at McCartee's Barn in Salem NY for the Washington County Cheese Tour. It's at 2Pm if you want to come and say hi, get a book signed, or hear me talk about my own farm and adventures in cheese making. I want folks who are out exploring my county's amazing farms to know they can go home with some of that milk that same day and make amazing cheese in less time than they dedicate to their morning commute. Mozzarella takes thirty minutes! I need to ask if I can bring Gibson along or if he should wait in the truck, either way we'll both be out and about! Come say hello and EAT CHEESE!