Coyotes

I woke up at 2:30 am this morning to the sounds of coyotes outside our bedroom window.  What strange sounds they make after a kill.  We lock down all of our birds every evening and the goats are in a six foot fenced pasture with electrical wire along the top.  I have chicken wire on the bottom bent over a foot and stapled down to the earth.  With the does we have a livestock protection dog living full time.  So far we have not lost any livestock to them, but we do lose barn cats.

Everyone that has livestock has rodents, rats, mice and voles.  It's almost impossible to keep 100% of the grain contained and these nasty rodents feast on it.  They will also pick apart the goat dung to eat undigested grain.  Dairy goats and chickens cannot be raised without grain, so we have an abundant rodent population.  Washington State Organic Standards allow us to use a rodenticide (vitamin D), and we do, but it only contains the population at manageable levels.  We also keep barn cats.  We get our cats from rescue organizations and our place is the last stop for cats they can't place in a home.  We have two large cages in our barn loft for new cats where we keep them for two weeks, then we open the door and they are on their own.  We keep a good quality cat food, fresh water and a litter box in the loft, and they have a ramp to get down and outside.  The life expectancy at our farm is not long for a cat.  We are very remote, bordering the State Park and large undeveloped wooded properties, so the predators are abundant here.  The Great Horn owl and the coyote are the main predator of our cats.  Our best hunter was Gray Paws, and she was eaten about a month ago.  She used to line up her nightly kills along the driveway for us to see in the morning.  We currently have two cats that won't leave the barn loft so they are safe;  Greta wanders - we'll see if she made it through the night later this morning.  It's a short life here at our farm for cats, but the cat people we use say it's much better than the animal shelters.

Oyster Mushrooms growing on an alder log

Monday I collected oyster mushrooms on an alder tree that blew over in the nasty winter of 2006-2007.  We have harvested nearly 10 lbs. this fall and I'll take another two pounds this afternoon.  I fry them in a little olive oil and add them to stir fry with vegetables from our garden and panir.  Panir is a goat cheese we make and use as the main protein source for one or two meals each week.  It's easy to make; I heat five quarts of goat milk to 195 degrees and keep it between 190 and 195 for 10 minutes, add a couple of gulps of vinegar, put it in a cheese cloth to drain for about two hours, refrigerate it for six hours, and it's done.  I cut it into 1/2 inch cubes and broil it after mixing it with spices and oil and add it to the stir fry.  It doesn't melt when heated like most cheeses and can be used in any dish as you would tofu or cubes of chicken.  It's almost unknown in the US but everyone that samples it loves it.  Tonight I'll make it with a peanut sauce and sauteed vegetables. 

An old fallen alder tree growing oyster mushroom on our land

Update on Greta: she made it through another night, waiting for me in the barn to get her morning lovings.