In case you were unaware, as I was until a certain someone started calling me this to encourage me to take the lead on the pig operation, a “Swine Herd' is one who herds swine. Now in case you've never spent much time around pigs, as I had not until last summer, you don't so much herd pigs, as you persuade them with food. So 'Swine Food Shaker' would suit me better I think, but alas the original title it seems, has stuck. So, my life as a Swine Herd. I start everyday by being persuaded out of bed by the smell of coffee and oatmeal (much like the pigs, I can be persuaded by food). Then it is time to feed the ducks and milk the cow – not part of swine herd duties, but still very important. After processing the milk, it is official swine herding time. I march out to the pigs and look at them. They snort at me, Lil' Kim (the one pig who seems to love humans for affection as much as she loves them for their food giving abilities) comes to get her daily head and belly rub. I check that there is still water (the tap is set on a level sensitive mechanism that keeps it full at all times) and check the food – a very smart design that the certain someone set up before the pigs arrived. The food part can be a bit of a chore because pig food is heavy and stored further away from the pigs, but a pretty simple scoop-wheel barrow-scoop system every day or two seems to make it fly. Next the fence test. Now piglets are smart and also sensitive animals. So after one or two shocks from an electric fence they seem to keep a pretty good mental note about where the fence is and to not get to close. Some days I don't need to thoroughly check the fence because a pig will check it for me, but others I do a quick jaunt around the pig pen to make sure no grass has grown up or dirt pushed forward to short out the line. After that, looking at the pigs is the next step. Healthy? Happy? Pig-like? Check. Check. Check. Repeat at least twice a day. (Turn on sprinklers during hot afternoons for the pigs to frolic in.)

From left to right - butter, buttermilk, cream, yogurt, whole milk.  (as well in the other pictures, frozen yogurt cubes for winter smoothies, an mango, cinnamon yogurt popsicles for now! Yum.)

This is Lola, our milk cow.  She has never been milked in her life by a human until five days ago.  She gave a little gentle tap with her hind leg just once on the first day of milking while her legs were being secured, but otherwise she has been a wonderful milk maiden.  We started off the milking routine about a month back by just bringing her in each night by halter and feeding her a little bit of grain mixed with the nicest hay we have to get her into good milking shape.  A general rule we live by on the farm is you never get something from nothing.  So we try to keep Lola's energy up by giving her a little extra somethin' somethin'.  Not only are we getting milk from her, but so are three calves, one her own and two who have adopted on to her.  She is a very gracious and generous cow!  So she started to get the idea that when we came to see her at night she was going to have to leave the herd, but she would get some grain as a reward.  It helps when I sing to her, her namesake song - Lola by the Kinks.  Or so I like to tell myself. 

Next we started to secure the stanchion (see right) around her while she was munching.  This didn't really seem to phase her at all.  After maybe one or two times in it, she understood that if she was patient we would let her out and she would probably get lots of petting and attention.  (We didn't raise this cow but she was sold to us by someone who treated her like a pet.  As a result she is the most friendly of cows and always gives lots of slobbery kisses and loves to be petted just about anywhere, but particularly under the chin.)  Finally, once we thought she was ready, and we were ready - we had to buy a milk bucket and some big jars to keep the milk in, and some cheese cloth to strain it through - we tried out milking our fine lady Lola.  

First step: bringing her to the stanchion after an night separated from the calves so that she is 'bagged up'.  This was easy since she knows that's where we will put the grain for her.  
Second step: tying up her back legs.  Basically her back legs are loosely tied together so that she can still shift about, but can't kick sideways at us.  She hasn't attempted to, but it is a nice feeling of security for our faces when we are so close to her range of kicks while milking.  
Third step: washing her down.  I never really thought about this until I started hanging out with cows, but what would you do if toilets and toilet paper and hands and opposable thumbs didn't exist?  Well what Lola and all other cows do is, just not worry about it.  So to avoid fecal matter in our milk, we wipe all around the area we milk from.  She doesn't seem to mind and it seems to get her ready to let down her milk.
Fourth Step: Start milking.  My only reference for this was a vague childhood memory from an Uncle's friend's farm, and from what I've seen on TV or in movies.  Turns out, its just like those times.  Not very complicated and quite pleasant, but also tiring.  Strong hand muscles are not something you just have.  So we take turns milking to give our hands a rest and take only what we need.  Every now and then we try to milk the front quarters dry because the last bit of milk out of a quarter is where the majority of the cream comes from, but for the most part we leave that for the hungry calves.
Fifth Step: Graciously thank our cow, give her lots of pets and scratches, and receive lots of slobbery kisses and then send her out to her calves and to pasture. 

Whole Milk - as our friend Thom would hate for us to say "It is what it is."   But seriously - Whole raw milk is just the milk you get directly from the cow.  We bring it inside and strain it through a few layers of cheese cloth and then put it in the fridge and in our morning coffee.  The big jar in the fridge then separates with the milk on the bottom and the cream on top over the next 24 hours.

Cream and Milk- With a ladle we scoop the cream off of the top. Easy!  It is thick and delicious and WAY more creamy than the stuff we used to buy for our coffee from the grocery store.  The milk left over (about a 95/5 ratio of milk to cream since Lola is a Holstein which were bred for volume not cream) is much lighter than the milk we use to by, but we never bought skim milk, so I suppose that would explain that!  My advice, don't drink too much at once.  Raw milk is different than pasteurized milk.  Give your gut a chance to get used to it.

Butter!  Butter is easy with modern technology.  I was given a food processor for my birthday and although the idea of churning butter by hand is delightful, I have a job, other interests and to be honest I am not that patient.  So, the Food Processor does the trick!  All I did was pour the cream into the FP, turn it on high for about five minutes, drain the liquid (buttermilk) from the butter and put aside for pancakes and bisquits, and then rinse the butter under cold water.  I added a little salt that I mixed in with a spoon and voila!  Butter!  I guess the other option would be to blend it for a little less time add some sugar and call it whipped cream.  Maybe next time!

The other thing we made was yogurt.  And lots of it.  Since we milked quite a bit to get the cream, we had a lot of milk left over from the skimming process.  Some we have been saving up for the pigs - 25, 50 pound pigs will be showing up Monday evening - and the rest I made into yogurt.  Another modern day technology I love all year round is the slow cooker.  For yogurt in the slow cooker I just dumped the milk in.  Then I brought it up to 180 degrees, then dropped it to 120 degrees.  Next I added some yogurt starter (from a container of store bought yogurt) whisked it in and then wrapped the whole thing in towels to keep it warm-ish over night.  In the morning we had fresh yogurt with our porridge!  Next time I may strain it at the end to make a thicker more greek style yogurt and give the juices to the pigs.  Since there was so much of it I froze a bunch in yogurt trays for fruit and veggie smoothies in the winter (frozen yogurt makes them that much more creamy and nutritious) and also made a series of experimental popsicles - so far 1. stewed rhubarb, honey and yogurt. 2. Mango, peach, cinnamon and yogurt. 3. Strawberry, stewed rhubarb, honey and yogurt.  We have a lot of rhubarb right now.  In a few weeks everything will have raspberries in it.
The next milk related experiment shall be ice cream and some sort of soft cheese, feta perhaps? Stay tuned. 

Well the ducks got big in a hurry!  And now they are officially growing grown-up feathers. Well official might be a bit of a stretch as everything I know about ducks I have learnt from other people's blogs, none the less, the feathers are growing bigger and stronger!  Swimming is just about their most favorite thing to do since I gave them the opportunity 8 days into their lives, but as of right about now, they have out grown their pond.  This doesn't seem to stop them from all getting in there at once and splashing about.  The above pictures in order are the ducks at about 2 weeks, 2 1/2 weeks and 3 weeks.  Week 3 is when they really started to grow some serious teenager feathers (I think).  We are still waiting to hear an actual quack from them though.  Perhaps their cheeps are getting lower or perhaps we are just excited to see them grow and it is all in their minds.  Either way, we found out how to tell which ducks are female and which are male the day we bought them.  As The Duck Dealer said to us, "pick 'em up by the neck - if they hiss they are a male, if they quack they are a female."  I have read that they can quack as early as 3 weeks but some are later bloomers and wont quack until they are closer to 9 weeks.  So, we wait patiently by, listening close for a 'quack' or a 'hiss'. 

Over the past few days many helpful people in our lives showed up to work hard, get dirty and in return, go home tired.  A BIG THANKS to my Dad for coming all the way up from Victoria for a few days, our Friend Foster from the Birds and the Beans farm down the road and to all of the machinery that kept us on our feet.  Who want to sit all day on a machine that works consistently anyways?  Bor-ring. Hopefully these helpful, happy people at least enjoyed a beer and felt some satisfaction in being a part of a huge job on our farm: packin' heat... into the cut grass, that will ferment, and then turn into delicious silage (feed) for the cows throughout the winter.  The cows will surely be appreciative and we most certainly are so grateful right now and forever for your help and encouragement in a brand new (to us) and humongous project.  I for one, am happy to have 'Skid Steer Extraordinaire' on my resume now.  Maybe an exaggeration of skill, but not of my new machinist ego.  I decided to document the whole thing in this photographic 'little toy' style since this type of adventure has been Etienne's dream since he was playing with little toy tractors twenty something years ago in his parents' garden. 

So we have purchased a mini flock of ducks for our own entertainment and to provide our household with eggs!  They are Khaki Campbell ducks who are known for high egg production and a lovely disposition.  They are a domesticated breed from England, by a Mrs. Adah Campbell who spoke of her ducks originally as "a few mongrel hens."  I found this great little piece (great for the pictures if nothing else) if you're into history and whatever.  Supposedly they lay an average of 320 eggs per year, whereas the average laying hen (in a free range situation without any artificial light to make them think it is day time) lays around 300!  Ducks!  Who would have thought?  Also, according to a recent NPR survey duck eggs come in a very close second to regular grocery story chicken eggs in a blind taste test when soft boiled.  (The most common reason sited for being second was that while the duck eggs were creamy and delicious and rich, they were unfamiliar... in my mind creamy, delicious and rich, trump unfamiliar any day...either way I guess we'll get used to it!)  The major bonus we see however is that ducks, once a little older and more independent eat WAY less store bought food than chickens, instead opting for grubs and grass!  Hurray for not buying lots of grain!  Below is a scale picture of one of our Khaki's on day 1 of her life... for now we'll call her Ginger.  Just pint sized.  Once a week we'll take another scale photo and if its dramatic we'll post for comparison.  This is also a minor plug for Tree Island Yogurt... delicious and just down the road from us. 

Yesterday was my first tractor drive of the year.  Although we try to hangout on the tractor as little as possible, some jobs just call for some tractor drivin'.  Spreading tons of lime is definitely one of those jobs.  So, we set to work feeding that soil some lime and manure.  Healthy soil is the goal.  Plus, really, driving a tractor is pretty fun.  This is actually a picture from one of my very first tractor drives (haying).  I thought I would post it instead of a pic from yesterday since this tractor, compared to yesterdays is ridiculousness good looking.

The view from our new farm vehicle!  Fields, mountains, barns, its all there!  The grass is growing and the cows are very happy to be out grazing, and the days are getting longer so I am happy to be out paddling in the evening light!