Hey Reader,

I think I need to stop telling you about the weather because whatever I say, the opposite happens next month.

We've left mud behind for a heat wave. The dogs are not happy about it, but, to be honest, neither is anyone else around here. And of course, the humidity is mostly to blame.

It is amusing seeing the chickens walk around with their wings held out to cool off. And the dogs are enjoying the fan we bought them, but I can't seem to get them to dip their toes in the kiddie pool. Pender seems to be the most affected by the heat due to being all black but the goats are good about finding a cool, shady spot in the woods. The cats are loving the heat.

But anyhoo, you know how sometimes a month can be so slow and then it feels like a whole month happens in one day? That's been the last few days and is why this June recap is a little delayed today.

I've got baking experiments, Pepper's complaints, and an intruder in the coop to share with you.

In the Coop

Egg Production

First off, here's an update on the ladies' laying.

Month Eggs

March 205

April 241

May 217

June 231

We're up 6.5% from May's low for the year and only down 4.1% from April's high for the year. This is great improvement!

An Intruder

So here's why this email came out later than anticipated today.

The lighting on these pics and videos are off because I was using the flash on my phone.

The hens like to go broody and lay in every spot except nesting boxes so I do an evening egg hunt all over the coop. There have been a couple times where I forgot my phone and just did this in the dark as our coop (an old shed set up by previous owners) doesn't get a lot of light.

Never ever EVER again.

First, I saw this.

Then I saw this.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, moves a broody hen. The snake's head was up under her.

Thankfully I knew it was a harmless rat snake as I've been following a Tennessee snake identification group for a while to learn. I did, though, post pics there first to double check that it was harmless.

Rex had to help me catch it in a bucket because holding a light and a shovel at the same time makes for a hard time catching a fast snake that doesn't want to cooperate.

We basically had to rescue the snake from the hen. She was not having it with the intruder. I'm honestly in awe of her - here's that video.

So not that catching it went smoothly, but depositing it elsewhere went even more poorly. I took it to the opposite side of the property across the road to undeveloped, overgrown land.

My plan was solid. Execution was not.

The snake and I envisioned quite differently where it should end up.

I'm glad no neighbors saw me and thankfully we're so rural we maybe have 2-3 cars drive by a day. If they had seen me, they would have thought I was playing street hockey with a shovel and a rope all by myself.

I did get a video of some of the fiasco but not the worst where I was straddle legged, two handing a shovel yeeting it like a hockey puck.

I didn’t record the worst parts as I needed both hands to battle Satan incarnate.

You should know that I don't deal with snakes often and I wanted nothing to do with this one. I'd rather not kill harmless snakes that take care of rodents but I also don't like snakes in my coop where I stick my hands in the dark.

Logically I knew the snake was fine to come back on our side of the road, but after all the effort I wasn't losing the fight. Survival instincts and adrenaline kicked in.

Experienced snake handlers will certainly laugh at my technique and are welcome to do so. I'm still laughing at myself.

At my expense, here are the two videos that, now, I'm cracking up about.

​First Goodbye Attempt​

​Final Goodbye Success​

The snake was not harmed during any of this. Don't call PETA on me.

Hopefully it had as terrible a time as me and won't saunter back on over to the coop.

In the Garden

I did weed the garden this past month which is a major accomplishment for the Good Luck Garden. However, I think I didn't consider how much more dried out raised beds can become in a drought compared to planting directly in the ground. This has severely affected germination.

I don't have much coming up in the garden besides a few squash plants, one singular corn stalk that I don't think is grass, and my transplanted luffa plants. Lesson learned that I need to water the garden A LOT more often.

Honestly if just my luffas make it, I'll be happy. I've really enjoyed using them as kitchen sponges and would like to grow enough to last me a full year this time around. Fingers crossed!

I've been watching a lot of Anne of All Trades regarding her lazy gardening and I hope to emulate her setup in the future. Here's her spring garden update that I find inspiring.

My $0.99 Walmart wildflower packets are doing great! I've left some flowers for the bees and brought some in to brighten up the kitchen.

In the Pasture

Tick Trick Final Update

I'm continuing the banana garlic sammies for the goats to battle ticks. While this hasn't completely eliminated them, it has greatly reduced the tick burden which is encouraging. For the most part, I can pick the remaining ones off when the goats actually allow me to do so. They don't particularly care for the process.

Pepper is Not Having Fun

Pepper is doing great, but it was time to band him. We only need one stinky buck around here. Lookin' at you, Pender.

Pepper was honestly so much less of a drama queen compared to Peanut that I almost wondered if I'd done the banding wrong. Pepper is up and moving around just fine, but avoiding us a bit. I get it.

Peanut is...special.

Interested in learning how we band our goats? I wrote up a blog post outlining the dos and don't, how we band and why and when, and included progress pics.

I mostly wrote this for others to also see progress pics of the wound as it healed over time. I was so frustrated the first time I banded a goat that I couldn't find a general timeline for healing that I decided to make one myself. It helps to know what to expect.

Happy Birthday!

In other news, Jove turned three this past month! Happy birthday to this big boy!

In the Kitchen

Lots of new things happened with baking this month.

And you'll be so proud of me. I actually baked my first freshly milled flour, 100% whole einkorn wheat, sourdough loaf.

Freshly Milled Flour (FMF) + Sourdough

Isn't she pretty?

BUT WAIT

She's a pancake!

I do feel like I'm back as a beginner baker like when I started sourdough baking.

She tasted great, but a little sour so I think I overproofed her.

I know 100% whole grain, FMF loaves won't be as light and fluffy as white, bread flour loaves, but I also think something went wrong here besides overproofing.

The dough was very grainy, like sand, and did not come together like the pics in the recipe I followed.

But I'm happy to keep trying! Got any tips?

Funnily enough I made FMF einkorn chocolate chip cookies and they were also super flat. These were not sourdough though so I think I didn't chill them long enough like FMF batter needs. Or at least that's what I'm seeing in my troubleshooting research.

These choco chip cookies were the best tasting ones I've ever made though so I think we're on to something here with FMF, whole grain cookies.

Open to tips!

Sourdough Experiment

So I did experiment more with my tried and true organic, white bread flour sourdough recipe this month and it was a huge success.

These loaves look basically identical to what I've baked before so what did I do differently this time?

No stretch and folds!

What a time saver!

My typical recipe calls for three S&F every 30 minutes after the initial mixing and that's on the low side of required S&F compared to other recipes. I've seen people take their dough with them on errands to keep folding it. Absolutely not.

Recently I saw a comment in a Facebook sourdough baking group that stated our pioneering ancestors on the prairie didn't have all day to babysit sourdough and that they mixed it and forgot it until baking.

And gosh darnit, that makes sense! So of course I had to try it and it was a huge success. Granted, I've only cut one loaf open, but I will no longer be doing those extra S&Fs in my typical sourdough recipe.

Have you tried skipping stretch and folds?

One Thing I'm Learning

Is this not the most beautiful amazing thing you've ever seen?

I wish I could find the original creator to see their other work.

I believe this is a small dog and I'm thinking this is my solution for Boudica (hen) who still resides in my chest freezer.

I'm also honestly tempted to dig up Mr. Thumbs and do this too.

Do you have experience with this type of work? I'd love some tips, tricks, and advice as I dig into learning how to recreate this.

One Small Beautiful Thing

I'm loving these gorgeous flowers in the kitchen so those inexpensive Walmart flower packets are a must in my annual garden plans now.

Whoo boy, this was a long one so thanks for sticking around! Hope you got a laugh out of it. :)

Ciao for now!

Jamie

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