Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 15 December 2023…
Hey Y’all!
Good morning and happy Fast-Jet Friday! The fast-jet pics today are the Mighty-Mighty F-15E Strike Eagle during a max-performance takeoff last Friday at RAF Lakenheath England. Our own Strike Eagle pilot, Hannah “HAIL” Slayton, completed her 2-Ship Flight Lead Upgrade program recently!! Congratulations to HAIL!! As she should, the first flight she led as a new flight lead was a night low-level flight through the mountains. There’s nothing like flying at over 500 miles per hour at 500 feet above the ground in the mountains…at night!! It takes the adrenaline rush of flying low during the daylight to a whole new level. Atta-girl!! The animals are all doing very well on the farm. We moved the livestock trailer into the paddock with the lambs yesterday. We decided to try feeding them in the trailer to see if we could train them, like the pigs, to be self-loading. At first, they were curious but not very interested in getting inside. We put a bunch of hay in it and left. When I returned to feed them yesterday evening, I could tell the hay had been spread around…a good sign. I put their feed in piles around the inside of the trailer, to include one right at the door. Within about 5 minutes, 2/3 of them were inside eating. This morning when I put the piles of feed all the way inside, all of them loaded themselves. By the time we need them in the trailer on Sunday, they shouldn’t even hesitate. We will shut them all inside and then sort out the 6 that aren’t going to the processor. The remaining 13 will be delivered Monday morning. This morning, we moved the beef herd to their winter pasture. Until this morning, we have been letting them pick around at the grass in our biggest bottom pasture as we fed them hay. They had picked at most everything available so we decided to get them off of the pasture so it can rest until spring. They were excited to move and thought they were getting new grass so they were a bit disappointed to find the same hay in a different pasture. The good thing about a cow is that their disappointment is very short-lived and within about 60 seconds they were happily eating their hay.
About the time we thought we had done everything we could think of with milk from our Jersey, we found something new. Using whey, the byproduct of making cheese or yogurt, you can add sugar/honey/molasses and a wine/champaign yeast and then let it ferment for a few weeks and the result is…wine. Whey wine to be exact. It is called blaand, pronounced the same as blonde. The yeast eats the added sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. The resulting liquid is the same alcohol content as wine, about 11-12%. We recently found out about blaand and decided to give it a try. About 3 weeks ago, instead of giving the gallon and a half of whey to the pigs, we added 3 pounds of sugar and a pack of champaign yeast and put it on the bottom shelf of the pantry to…well…ferment. This week, we decided to siphon a bit out to see what was happening. The result is in the top pic. It isn’t as clear as it will get if we let it continue to sit, but it is finished fermenting. The resulting liquid tastes much like a mix of beer and wine, with the feel of a liqueur. If we had to guess, we would say it’s about a 12% alcohol content. Like wine, we need to “rack” it, or siphon the liquid out without disturbing the solids that have settled to the bottom. Should we desire, we can continue to rest it, rack it, rest it, rack it…until it becomes perfectly clear. It probably won’t last that long! Overall, we think it tastes good and is definitely worth the effort. Instead of a 5-gallon bucket with lid, we’re going to buy the proper equipment and by Spring we will have the equipment to make it the right way. Just when you think you’ve heard of it all…blaand!
We posted Episode 22 of the Dust’er Mud podcast yesterday. In this episode, I talk about the day Simon Sinek walked into my office unannounced and how that encounter changed our outlook on health. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTeCKw7g7Rw
Local Farm Report for 12-14 December 2023…
30 Chicken eggs
14 Duck eggs
7 3/4 Gallons of milk
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
500 mph at 500 feet, in the mountains, at night!
Yikes!
That pic of the whey wine on that tablecloth, with the background...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...