JOHN DEERE'S GATOR ROCKS, OK?

I will leave it to your imagination as to what all exactly is going on HERE!  Yes, it DOES involve ducks but that can wait until another blog post! 

When we moved here from England to West Virginia in 2009, hubby mentioned something called a Gator to me, and that he wanted to buy one. Well, I had no idea that those large, scaly critturs thrived in West Virginia, and although we have a big pond, I said definitely not!  He then showed me a picture. It looked very expensive. Hubby has always liked his "Big Boy's Toys". However, he reassured me that a John Deere Gator would be the best thing ever since sliced bread, but somehow I didn't believe him.

Roll forward a few months and we bought one on Ebay. Yes, it WAS a shed-load of dosh but it came with all sorts of extras such as a hydraulic dump bed and it only had 27 hours on the clock.

Inside of just a few days this thing was making itself useful. John had loaded it with metal posts ready for the espaliered cherry trees, and was driving them in using back of the Gator as a convenient platform.

It was spring 2010 and hubby had never looked so fit and healthy, walloping those posts into the ground!

OK, so this is my hubby John Snyder.  He is a Vietnam vet 1966-1970, and retired from the State of California back in 1998  but he is NOT the retiring type as you can see!   He hunts, he gardens, he works hard, and he is my invaluable left hand, particularly on my bad days and I love him dearly! 

The road-up rebuild of this rather run-down property had started and the Gator worked tirelessly for us and for our Virginia contractors, hauling scrap from dismantled kitchens, decks and bathrooms. It moved compost, sacks of concrete, lumber and stone. It was a handy way to take several loads of trash up to the end of the driveway, about 1200 feet uphill. We used it to cart chainsaws, splitting mauls and gasoline around the property to cut fallen lumber then transport it back to the house. We had bought 32 acres, of which about 23 acres was mixed woodland, mainly hardwoods, so it was great to cut our own firewood for winter burning or to head out into the woods to find mushrooms and wild fruit. We became part of West Virginia's Timberland Management Program in 2011.

Always ready and waiting, this little beastie very quickly found favour with me and I soon realised it had been worth every penny.. and of course it was also a load of fun into the bargain and I certainly enjoyed our sorties into the woods and over to neighbours' houses.

You can see the Gator at the back in Spring 2010, with the Sunburst Yellow 1992 Mazda Miata, owned from new by hubby. This limited edition, now with a supercharger, Koni shocks, slotted discs (and yes it goes like s*** off a shovel!), is being sold this year to make room for a  food sales area in the garage.  The red truck belonged to the Virginia contractors and became an almost permanent fixture as they lived in the basement Monday to Friday while working on the house - for 15 months in fact!  The Nissan Rogue is a 2008 model and a very reliable, cheap-to-run workhorse.  

The Gator lived in one half of the integral garage until we built the detached garage in 2011

So back to the winter of 2010, and the only way we can get out with heavy snow on the ground is with the chained-up Gator. It is also also the only way we can transport our trash to the top of the hill, get the mail, and get to visit with the neighbours at this time of year, after bundling up with 48 layers of thermal underwear, ski goggles, and neck gaiters.  Man, West Virginia can get SERIOUSLY cold in winter. I almost changed our chosen property name from Shady Grove to Windy Corner!

The Gator handles a Berco Snowblower with ease as you can see..

Chained-up Gator plus Berco snowblower with hydraulic controls chuffs its way through heavy, wet snow with John at the controls. 

Driveway clearing over, hubby heads back to the garage where this combo is kept once we start to get the big snows and need to get out of our driveway.

Hubby has around 24 bird feeders. Filling them in summer is a breeze with the Gator!

With 24 bird feeders around the property, and feeding birds year round, we get through prodigious quantities of Black Oil Sunflowe Seed, Premium Bird Seed, Niger Seed and Suet Cakes. 

Keeping our feathered friends fed is rather trickier in the winter once the snow starts to settle. With the chains, we can load the Gator up with the totes of seed 'n' stuff, and keep the birdies fed even when there is a foot or so of snow on the ground. It DOES get to the stage when even the Gator has to be abandoned, so that is when we tow a kiddy's plastic sled along the mainly level ground behind us, with the totes of Black Oil Sunflower Seed and Bird Seed on top. This works very well with our snowshoes!

Feeding the birds in winter requires two or three rounds a week with the Gator! 

Continuing the winter theme, the tipper bed comes in really handy at times!

Wood, compost, gravel, sand.. and for moving tons of garden debris down to the lower pond after a major tidying session, the hydraulic tipper bed on the Gator is VERY useful! 

Yours truly heading down to the root cellar with the latest canning results and a bunch of onions that found 45F was a good temperature to start sprouting! The root cellar is at 36F right now - the soft ones were chucked but plenty more organically grown onions where those came from! 

But honestly, the real delight in this multi-use tool is heading down into the woods on a fabulous West Virginia summer's day and get working on "stuff"!

John riding shotgun.  Armed? Yes. The last thing we want is a confrontation deep in the woods with mom and her three cubs!  And yes, I assure you that bears DO react to loud noises such as a rifle shot!

Jeff Dempsey at the wheel, our invaluable helper/builder/carpenter/electrical/lanndscaper and plumbing repair guy. He also carried out the installation of the entire Solar Array under the supervision of Mountain View Solar, who are a wonderful outfit based in Berkeley Springs, WV

Yours truly posing for a selfie, on the way back from a hard day's work in the woods.

Heading back from our labours along the dam towards the house on a gorgeous summer evening for refreshments. 

Finally, after clearing out the herbaceous borders this fall and hauling stuff down to the lower pond area with the Gator a few times, Henny Penny decides that she DEFINITELY likes this new nest!

Henny Penny in her giant "nest"!

Finally, we have even used the Gator for litter/trash pick-up along the entire 7 miles of Nile Road in the middle of winter so this wonderful vehicle also gets to serve the community!

Januray 2014, at the start point! The road was adopted by Little Union Baptist Church in Calvin, but John and I still head out together to pick up trash  between times :) 

And this is where we finished - back at our own property!

CHRISTMAS AT SHADY GROVE - AND MY HOME-MADE ENGLISH TRIFLE RECIPE

Emerald, one of our two Cayugas, enjoying a little sunshine 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We pretty much relaxed here, reflecting on this time of celebration, and the REAL reason for the holiday.

We just let the chickens and ducks into their run on Christmas Day, which makes it easier for us to get them all back into the pen early, as we were due for a late afternoon dinner with our neighbours and their daughter.

Our happy brood with Wrong Way Corrigan on the Left

We actually had a snow shower or two come through which was fun to see, but no snow stayed around.

I Skype-videoed with my mom and dad back in England. My dear aunt Cleo, my dad's older sister, was over there so I got to chat with her too! Christmas Day is my birthday so it was lovely to talk to the family and throw each other virtual hugs and kisses, and to tell everyone that I missed and loved them. Mom and dad are not getting any younger so every day that they are still around is to be treasured.

With the clucks and ducks in bed, we headed out to our dear friends, Dan and Nicki, and their daughter, Alicia, who has recently moved from Atlanta to West Virginia to open a bed and breakfast in a historic mansion, near Lewisburg in beautiful Greenbrier County.

Well, after an array of hugs and greetings, we settled down for dinner, starting with the shucked oysters and steamed clams, with a home-made cocktail sauce.  These were sooo.. good!

Moving on, they presented us with boneless roasted beef rib-eye, served with mashed potatoes, rutabagas and turnips, with a wonderful beef gravy, complemeted by a sour-cream and horseradish sauce.  I got the end piece. I enjoy medium-done beef, but hubby John waited until the roast was half-way through before helping himself to a couple of rare pieces of beef!

The two dogs, Maddie and Cushie, occasionally parked a nose in a lap, expecting hand-outs.. which they never got, of course, but no harm trying, eh?

Finally, it is time to present Caroline's English Trifle for desserts. From scratch. Yes, even the trifle sponges were made as follows:

Pre-heat Oven to 350F
Line a baking tray with baking parchment

Trifle Sponge Ingredients
4 Duck Egg Yolks
4 Duck Egg Whites
5 oz Cane Sugar
4 oz Organic A/P Flour
1/2 teaspoon Potassium Bicarbonate (preferred over Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda)
1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

Whizz egg yolks and sugar in the processer until thick and yellow. Using a hand-held mixer, beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add vanilla extract. Add half the whites to the processor and blend briefly. Add the sifted flour and bicarbonate to the processor and blend for a few moments until smooth. Add remaining egg white and process until smooth.

Pour batter on to baking parchment. Just let it spread naturally. Place in oven for about 10 minutes until just turning golden and remove to cool. The sponge will be pulled into pieces anyhows so appearance or shape is not critical.

Next!

Either you can make individual trifles or one large one. The large one ends up with the layers mixing. Although it still tastes awesome it can get VERY sloppy which some people find offputting. I used 7 pot pie dishes. Glass dishes are especially nice because you can see through to see the yummy layers but I don't have any so ceramic it is.

Tear up the sponge and layer it into the bottom of the dishes. Any you have left over you can store or freeze. Next, a fruit layer is needed. I chose black and red raspberries out of the freezer, partly defrosting them in the microwave. You can also use canned fruit such as peaches or apricots. If, like me, you use alcohol in cooking, you will need Cream Sherry, Madeira or Marsala. Your aim is to use the juices out the fruit plus the sherry etc to soak the trifle sponges, which you will leave to soak for a couple of hours in a cool place.The fridge is ideal. If you do not want to use alcohol you can always use some fruit juice instead.. even the syrup out of the canned fruit.. but that would be VERY un-British!

English Trifle Custard

6 Duck egg yolks only
20 fl oz Heavy Cream
6 tablespoons Cane Sugar
1 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract

Place egge yolks in a medium size mixing bowl, add sugar and vanilla, and beat with a hand-held mixer until thick and creamy. Heat heavy cream in a heavy-bottomed, preferably non-stick pan but do not allow it boil or stick. It should be steaming furiously but not bubbling.

Set the hand-mixer running with one hand and pour the cream into the mixing bowl over the eggs, mixing the whole time. You have to keep the heat distributed evenly at all times. Once mixed, pour back into the saucepan and heat steadily, stirring the whole time with a wooden spoon. Do not let the heat build up anywhere else you will end up with lumps of scrambled egg instead of an English custard!

After an age, you will notice the custard starts to thicken. Keep stirring!  When it completely coats the back of the wooden spoon, you can remove it from the heat and stir for a minute. Take a blob of custard and drop it on to cold plate. If it has thickened after a couple of minutes, your custard is ready!

Retrieve the chilled bowl(s) and divide the hot custard between them. Cover with foil and chill.. this may take a couple of hours.

Finally, the whipped cream topping - and no, "Cool Whip" is totally unacceptable - blurgh!!

Take 12 fl oz cold heavy cream and place into a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat with the hand-mixer on full until double the size. At this point, I remember that I SHOULD have worn an Apron, but at least the cats on the kitchen floor appreciate my efforts!  Note to self.. use a larger bowl next time, to contain the chunks of flying cream!

Spread the cream over the trifle(s) in a thick, delicious layer. I normally finish the top with slivered almonds which I toast in a cast iron skillet until golden. Cool before sprinkling on to the cream, else they will simply melt their way through to the custard!

This particular trifle was finished with a layer of grated dark chocolate and was sooo.. good!  Yes, it got a thumbs-up all round as it always does over here!

Oh, and the advantage of having left-over whipped heavy cream is you can float it over your flavoured coffee after the meal has finished!

Christmas with family and friends is the best, isn't it?

Well, that was our Christmas, folks!  I hope yours was just as good, or even better!

MY DEAD LAPTOP AND A BUNCH OF NEW FENCING GOING UP!

Little Flash enjoyoing the ice-free pond. This little girl gives me white eggs about the same size as a large chicken egg

Hi Peeps!  Computer has been in the shop for the past 10 days .. unfortunately the last backup that I have that is NOT corrupted goes back 12 months.  That means I have lost a TON of stuff; labels, brochure, Shady Grove photos, accounts for starters. Note to self - Sign up for Carbonite back-up when I get the laptop back!

I have my little Chromepad here though, thankfully, with its 11.5" screen (man, my eyes!!) so I haven't been totally offline.

We have been struggling to comply with a temporary injunction to keep our gates open along the right of way. This has meant keeping clucks and ducks confined on days when we have been unable to supervise their activities and even on days when we HAVE been able to supervise them, they have to be constantly retrieved from the neighbour's (undeveloped) property. Ducks wander through gates you see. Domestic ducks cannot fly so our original method of containment with the gates worked wonderfully.. meaning that we sometimes have to trespass on the (plaintiff's) neighbour's property several times daily. Same newbies that have the ROW across Shady Grove Farm for access/egress. You see, in Nicholas county, it is not about what the law says, it is about who knows who. Nuff said!

Faced with almost a doubling in feed and bedding costs with confinement, we have just spent thousands of dollars building fences and gates along the right of way. At least now, we know that we can let the critters out and they are NOT going to wonder either on to Nile Road and get killed, or on to the neighbour's property.

Can you believe that the (Eejut) plaintiff's lawyer suggested to the Judge that the gates didn't work anyway because chickens can not only fly over the 5 ft fence but also swim across the pond, walk a few hundred feet up a briar-strewn slope, and get on to the road, and the judge agreed?

Anyways, faced with the hearing in JUNE, a wait of 7 months, I was not prepared to let our livestock endure forced confinement, hence the decision on fencing, which cost us the equibalent of the extra food and bedding that would have been required over that time period.

Hubby John was just applying the finishing touches by trimming up the 1" heavy duty plastic mesh over the field gates when I took some pix.

Socks the feral kitty investigates the new gates. The red bar gates were built and installed by us BEFORE people bought the property behind us so they bought their property with the gates in place. However, we know that they were told, we presume by the seller/agent, that the gates belonged to THEM and they could remove the gates any time they wanted.. the same style of gate was installed before these gates were put in place at the entrance to the right of way LONG before the prroperty behind us was acquired and replaced an existing 5-bar field gate that had been installed around 50 years ago when this property as a horse farm. The temporary injunction requires us to keep these gates open at all times and we comply. 

Brand new section of fencing along the 14 ft right of way. These are 8 ft posts, augured in to 2 foot depth, set in concrete.Note the heavy field fencing that stretched between the posts.  The wood and wire gate gives foot acess into the duck pen and the adjacent run. as well as to the 100ft raspberry border. Drilling 2 ft holes into large rocks and shale was no fun for John, I'll tell you!

Ducky break! The pond was frozen over completely for a couple of days so these girls were so excited when the ice cleared! 

New wood and wire gate with new posts and fencing.

New posts and fencing heading back up the right of way to Nile Road. Hubby John doing the finishing touches on the 2 x 14ft wide, 5 ft, 14 ft wide field gates to prevent poultry from getting under the gap at the bottom of the gates. 

New posts, fence and gate now completely separate the right of way from the rest of our property. Effectively we have lost the use of 17,500 square feet of our property for free ranging our animals. 

Previously, visitors and delivery vehicles could pull in, reverse and turn around in the drive. Now they will have to get out, unchain and open the two 14 ft field gates, drive in, reverse to turn around, and then close/chain the gates before departing. 

You can clearly see the long line of 8 ft posts and fencing that we buit.  

The "Duck gates" that we built in 2013 will stay in pkace until we find another location for them. Essentially, they are redundant right now. 

Fencing goes right up to where the original gate posts were placed. Looking back towards the house with the pond on the right. At least we can be sure that our girls will now be safe from road traffic.

My babies!! 

We are still offering FREE duck and chicken eggs between now and the end of the month so stop by if you are in the area. You might want to call us first even though we are mostly at home.  By the way, with 26 laying birds we are STILL getting up to 25 eggs a day, pretty good for mid-December in West Virginia! 

Wild and Wonderful - Solar-Powered Farming in West Virginia's Lakes and Mountains

It's December 3rd 2014.  It is wet. It is also windy out there with light mist, heavy grey cloud and a temperature of 47 F. To this Brit, there are times when this state is so much like Scotland in summer, it's uncanny.  When I lived in England, I had made many visits to the Scottish Highlands and Islands over the decades, and it remains one of the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of Europe to this day. West-By-God-Virginia actually sits on the exact same ancient foundational rock and at one time, Scotland and West Virginia were more or less set side by side. Amazing, hey!  No wonder so many Scottish migrants ended up here. These mountains must have indeed felt like home, as they do to me today. Maybe it's my own Scottish ancestry that has something to do with it.

The fan in the wood stove hums, blowing heat across the living room of our log home, over a multitude of sleepy cats, before the ceiling fan  in the family room on the second floor sucks the hot air upwards and distributes it to all four corners of this wonderful space where I sit at my desk with my laptop, awaiting a refill of my coffee cup from hubby.

Autumn's Last Fling - October 16th 2014 - View from my desk

This is NOT a day for humans to be outdoors; nor chickens for that matter.  My small flock of clucks are quite happy scratching up the deep litter in the duck pen today, looking for compost worms and other goodies that are working on breaking down the material in the deepest layers.

Cogburn, our hard-working rooster

Like us, chickens don't like rain very much,  but the ducks are absolutely in their element. This is what they were made for - water!


A magnificent herd of 14 Khaki Campbell ducks (The Khaki Army) with two beautiful black Cayugas, whom John and I named Sapphire and Emerald, race across the front lawn below me, followed by the seven Magpie ducks, stopping for only for a few minutes to further excavate an expanding mud hole where two days ago there was grass. You KNOW that in that short time they will have found and consumed a couple dozen drowning worms.

Then "Onward, onward" - they hurtle down the grassy bank by the waterfall, into the pond  (lake or pool to my British friends and family) where there is much quacking, flapping, diving and up-ending of ducky butts with flapping feet. I then watch them line up in a row and start to work the waterline, eking out edibles from the soft mud, earth and grass that make up the margins of our 1 acre pond. I smile - every grub, worm, larva, beetle and plant that they eat is making our wonderful, golden-yolked duck eggs and reducing the feed bill for the Nature's Best Organic Layer Mix that we buy in 50 lb bags from Southern States - I smile again...