waynegooden

My Writings. My Thoughts.

Lewisville library to host back-to-school event

// August 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Chatter

From this article.

An Alphabet Chair & Back to School Celebration will be held from 2-4 p.m., Saturday (Aug. 21) at the Lewisville Public Library, 1197 W. Main Street.

The event to celebrate the beginning of the new school year will feature an artist demonstration by Sarah Peters. It will also include magician Brett Roberts, the Sugar Free All-Stars, face painting and prizes.

Source: Dallas News: Lewisville Blog
http://lewisvilleblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/08/lewisville-library-to-host-bac.html

Old things brought to life

// April 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Chatter, Farmers Market, Pilot Point Square

Last Saturday, the Dallas Model A club was in Pilot Point for breakfast at Jays Cafe. They were taking a trip up to Lake Texoma and this is where they all decided to meet and caravan. The morning was overcast and a little drizzly … but it was fun to take some pics of the old cars and truck. The incredible care to restore these cars of yesteryear were amazing. I can remember as a youngster by grand dad telling me stories of Model A’s and Chalk Hill in Dallas. I can remember my Uncle Charles adding to the technical aspect of these ‘Ford” tough vehicles and stories of modifications they performed as young men. As I hurried to get the shots I needed before more current cars flooded the background, I thought … this old square could come back to life, just like these old cars. I don’t know why I can’t get that out of my head. I have lived in Pilot Point for 8 years now, still a newbie by current standards, and I can’t tell you the times Lori and I just drive to the square and go round and round … saying, that place would make a great ice cream parlor, that would make a great boutique …. or I wonder what the Old Opera House would have looked like?

I applaud the businesses that have stayed on the square for all these years … and the new visionaries that are making a go of it now. The Purple Door Spa has done a wonderful job of restorations and I pray good fortune on their endeavor. I certainly wish I had an abundance of cash … I would love to infuse it in the square economy. Lots of folks have told me … don’t waste your money on the square, it has not changed in years … naysayers. A little paint, some renovations, and it could be a model for other Texas towns to follow in the future. The square in Pilot Point has history … a rich history, I might add.

Well, tomorrow night is the meeting for the Farmer’s Market. I hope that we might have some interest in helping put something together that others in our area would love to attend.

See you at 6:30 pm at City Hall.

Ready for Market

// April 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Soap

The logo has been designed. The name settled. Wrappers printed. Production. Viola!

Guudie Soap. Lori and I are proud of how the packaging came out. The wrappers are made out of 100% recycled banana tree. The sticker design came together nicely, so now we are ready for market or web sales … or whatever. Pictured here is the Lotta Pina Colada … which is my favorite (so far) … made from 100% goat’s milk (no water), olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and that delicious fragrant oil of pina colada from the colada tree. Man, you smell this soap … you want to eat it!

Soap making is addictive … there is no doubt about it. Once you get your mind wrapped around the chemistry part of it, it’s pretty fun. One of the main reasons I am excited about starting our farmer’s market here in Pilot Point is the opportunities I would hope that people, especially teens, can find in producing a product for consumers. If young people could see what an advantage it is to grow things and then sell them … they would not have to be stuck in a minimum wage type situation. Everywhere I go people are asking me about raising goats or chickens or vegetables … I think it’s neat.

Our soaps have a price point at about $5 per bar. The mark up is fair compared to the work and ingredients in each bar. Our plans are to not only sell these in our farmer’s market but to offer them through internet sales. You would be surprised at the number of people who are allergic to store bought commercial soap. Some are allergic to the fragrances … which we will have a bar with all the moisturizer qualities of goat’s milk … without any fragrance. Some of the soaps are made with essential oils … which are natural fragrances … like the lavender soaps curing in my closet … oh my, what a great smell every time I walk in there.

If you are interested in getting a bar or two … let me know … we can ship it out. We have two ready for shipping now. Lotta Pina Colada and Fresh Linen. The Fresh Linen does not have goat’s milk and was made with Tallow, Water, and oils. I wanted to make this bar because it was old school … the way great grandmother would make it … but it smells so good … like fresh linen. We are producing soap each week … so watch.

Goats Milk Soap

// April 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // Soap

So what do you do with an abundance of goat’s milk? Yes, there are lots of things … but what interested us was … making soap! Don’t knock it … it is addictive. We have made 4 batches … the first was pretty cool … we made it in a Prinkles can. Made about 10 bars and it was on. What you are looking at is goat’s milk soap … made with no water … making it the most moisturizing soap I have ever used. I have used two different procedures … the cold process, where you have to wait 4-6 weeks for the soap to completely cure or go neutral (ph) … and the hot process for those of us who hate to wait on anything … you can cook it to neutral ph in about 3 hours. This soap smells like ‘pina colada’ … one of my favorites fruits

The soaps are all natural, no chemical detergents … just got old lye soap, but probably not the kind your grandmother or great great mother made. We are feverishly making our batches to get ready for the Pilot Point Farmer’s Market in June. To get the cold process soaps ready for market … We pretty much have to have them curing by May 1. We have also made: a kitchen hand soap (no fragrance, just good cleaning properties), wog’s pina colada lotta, lori’s lavender closet, spring time fresh linen … next up … orange you glad.

Once you try goat’s milk soap … everything else is pretty boring. But … please don’t eat the soap … it smells like you can. Plus the kitchen looks like ‘fight club’.

Farmer’s Market Express

// April 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Farmers Market

Well, yesterday was not a good day. Mistakes galore. It was a Monday, for sure! The main deal that frosted me was this site … I tried to import it from an old hosting site to my new one … and it caused some loss … and when I say “it”, I really mean … something that I did to lose some 500 posts. I harvested a few of the most recent ones from the database … but, I doubt if I do that for all the other posts. Those of you that commented on the posts that I reclaimed … I was not able to find those yet.

On the shiny side of the coin … our first interest/planning meeting is scheduled for April 21, 6:30 pm at City Hall. These next few days I hope to get out and make some calls to folks that are way too busy to be messing with the internet. In fact, it’s pretty cool, some are calling me. Got a call last night for someone who says that might be able to at least come to the meeting. That’s a good thing.

I am a diligent entrepreneur. I will try anything that has a purpose and will make a difference. This farmer’s market will be no exception. Several years ago I was so inclined to start a food pantry in Denton. Others said, there are already too many food pantries! I said … we still have hungry people … how can me have too many? That food pantry is still going strong, long after I moved along. At one time we were feeding 40 – 50 families a week and providing food for 12 other food pantries from a very generous benefactor who kept the trucks and the funds coming. We put together a small army of folks to make this happen on a weekly basis … I said all of that to say this … I know what hard work is before us … and when I say us … I mean me. A dream starts with one or a few … and the work is slow at first … but momentum catches as others see the progress.

I am inspired in this project by a book. “The town that food saved” by Ben Hewitt. It’s a good read and well worth your time. Pilot Point has a history of being a very strong agricultural market place … what I am doing here is not new … it’s just returning to our roots. There are many, many people in our area that are committed to sustainable farming and educating others to grow healthy food and then providing that harvest to others.

So even though I had a crummy Monday. I start another day. Full of hope.

Pass the word about our meeting … I would love to meet a bunch of you. Bunch meaning, more than one.

A Farmers Market in Pilot Point

// April 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Farmers Market

Yes, I believe it will be a reality. Pilot Point city officials are excited about our little venture and are in full support of what we want to do. Excellent. Many, many thanks for the kindness, openness and approachability! Now the work really begins! In ‘near’ perfect conditions we could have an abbreviated season THIS year. The market running from June – October. Our last market ending during the “Bonnie and Clyde Days” event scheduled for Oct. 8 – 9. It is only 5 market dates … but it will help us work out all the kinks for the 2011 season.

“What’s Next?” … hopefully we can pull off several interest / organization / planning type meetings during April and May. The first being this week … if everything can come together. The city has graciously made available for us a meeting room at city hall. Lots of things to do though. The website will start this week. All the forms and procedures have to be put together. Budgets, networking, speaking engagements, … wow, it sounds fun! All of this … and I hope to chronicle the whole thing in a book. It may be idealistic … but I think local food can give Pilot Point an economic boom and really help bring our square to life. I can remember when we moved here several years ago and going to Jay’s … eating breakfast and looking at all the photographs and thinking … this town, at one time, had a thriving town square. Wishing it could all happen again. You might be asking … well, where have you been Wayne? … why haven’t you done something about it before now. Well, we sort of tried. Well … not sort of. We really tried. I have a few long stories on how we tried to purchase several places on the square but kept coming against things time and again. Ah, it just wasn’t our time. There is no reason to cry over spilled milk … unless you are the guy milking the goat, eh?

Lori and I visited two great markets yesterday and talked to nearly every vendor at the McKinney market. It was awesome. Such community there and willingness to someone asking … “hey, we are starting a market in Pilot Point, any suggestions?” This is the underlying deal I am going for via the farmer’s market … building strong community … around a common need. I think I just wrote a portion of our mission statement.

All this said … this can not happen without help. I know everyone is busy with their own “thing” … but everyone doing a little can accomplish a lot.

As soon as I secure the meeting date … I will inform you.

wg.

Free Range Chickens

// April 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Farming

I confess that nearly every time I hear the term “free range” I hear the song “free ride” by The Edgar Winter Group, in my head. I don’t know why. Hopefully, I did not plant my devious play list into your head now. Hahahaha. “Free Range” chickens is a popular topic among those who write about food politics these days and rightfully so.

Visit 95 percent of the egg operations in the United States today, and you’ll find as many as a quarter million hens crammed into batteries of cages stacked ten rows high—quarters so tight they cannot even flap their wings.

“The modern hen lays an egg on around 320 days each year, and during the two hours surrounding that process, she is severely frustrated,” Ian Duncan says, expert on laying hens and emeritus professor in the department of animal and poultry science at the University of Guelph, Canada, who holds a university chair in animal welfare. “That seems unacceptable to me.”

Duncan also notes that without perches, the chickens do not sleep well at night, and because they cannot get exercise, they develop weak bones akin to osteoporosis. That said at least with the growing minority of producers, “the trend seems to be getting the birds onto the floor of the barns and even outside,” Duncan observes.

If the modern hen lays an egg around 320 days each year … then most of my hens are on an extended vacation. I have 9 and I average about 3 eggs a day. But everyone can be really glad that they have the run of the place. My chickens are blessed! I have three different types or breeds of chickens … Buff Orphingtons, Black Australorps, and Red Sex-Links. The buffs are considered a “heavy breed” hens getting to be about 8 lbs. My look like they need to get on Jenny Craig (not really) … I am just comparing them to when I bought them … they were very thin. The breed originated in Orphington Kent, United Kingdom in the late 1800’s. The australorps are the Australian version of the buffs. These birds are also of the “heavy breed” and their feathers are very soft and have a shiny green tint to them. The Red Sex link chickens are a cross bred chicken. Someone thought it would be easier to know the sex of the chicken based on it’s color than make a mistake in buying a hen and ending up with a rooster. Finding out the sex of the chicken at a very young age is sometimes very difficult. The Red Sex Link is a cross between a Rhode Island Red rooster and a White Rock Wyandotte, Rhode Island White or Delaware hen. When the chicks are hatched … the red ones are hens! So simple I could figure that one out. Except I have heard that it always does not work like that. The Red Sex links are also called Red Stars.

Free Range can mean different things to different people. Free Range to me means … they get out of their coop in the day and go just about wherever they want. Chickens are pretty much home bodies and don’t really get too far away from their roost or perch. My chickens lay some time during the day so I want them to have access to their hen house during the day. I have a little door that I open every morning and then when the sun goes down at night … are all go back in and I close them up. I do this to protect them from predators … I am pretty sure that even if I didn’t close the door … they would stay in their coop.

If you are going to buy chickens … make the people you are buying them from SHOW you the eggs. Ask questions … like are they hens laying NOW. That is if you want laying hens. Young hens do not lay until they are about 6 months old. The first batch of bird I bought I asked … are these hens laying … and the guy said yes. Then when I went to pick them up … he said … they were “about to” start laying. He said … within two weeks. It has been a month for the black australorps and I am pretty sure they don’t even know what an egg is. When I bought the Red Stars … I asked to actually see the eggs. It was better. But the lady had like 30 hens in the cage and she showed me 5 eggs. So don’t be disappointed if you don’t get eggs like clock work … right off the bat.

Here’s something else … when collecting the eggs … under no circumstance put the eggs in your pocket … no matter how baggy your shorts or pants are. Even if the wind is blowing so hard and you need both hands to open the gate … because having an egg break in your pocket is a very defeating endeavor.

Family is Everything

// April 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Family

Easter is always hectic for us. Our kids are involved in churches that are about 50 miles apart from each other. Yesterday both churches had two services … so we went to one early service and then headed to White Rock Lake for a family easter picnic. The weather really did not cooperate, but I thought … it would keep people away from the park and we would get a good spot. Wrong. There are just as many other die hard family picnic people on Easter as us. I scouted out a spot near the Bath House, Porta Potty, trash cans and parking lot … and we staked our claim with quilts. I always feel like one of those settlers during the Oklahoma land grab when public parks are crowded and we find a spot. Once you spread out your blankets and quilts … it’s like putting up a fence. It’s pretty cool.

Everyone got there. We cooked out on one of those little yuppie grills … you know the ones that fold flat and are no bigger than a laptop. They really are pretty good. I got 7 hamburger, turkey burger and avocado/cheese/meat/bread crumbs (Mer) burgers on the little grill. Plus … with it misting rain, it still produced some nice heat. Fire … uh, uh oh, oh.

When the Gooden family outing don’t go as planned … my family is so positive they always proclaim … we are making memories. Well, we did just that … wet hair, kids rolling down the hill with their easter clothes on, soggy chips and unpredictable wind changes. Making memories. This day will come up again in conversation … remember in 2010 we had a Easter picnic in the rain and Casey tried to get a self timed group shot and was running to get in the shot and slipped on the grassy knoll. Yeah, that was cool.

Family is Everything.

Neighbor helping Neighbor

// April 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Farming

In the agri culture of days gone by there was very little technology. Folks had to “figure things out”. Remedies, instructions, and specialized information was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. You still hear of it today … but it is getting less and less. “My grandmother did it this way” or “This is the way I was taught” are things I used to hear as a kid. Now a days grandmother is googling things just like the rest of us. I confess when I wanted to get into sustainable farming, raising chickens and goats … I went to the internet. Bought my chickens and goats through ads on craigslist. Got my planting schedules and soil recipes from blogs and youtube videos. Information is power! But, what happens when things don’t go like the youtube video showed you or one of your chickens is doing a rendition of the funky chicken dance that is a little weird. Ooops … they didn’t tell me about that. Well, the first thing I do is go back to the internet … get more information … different opinions … different options. Then it may get a little confusing. Now, I realize that I have just enough information to make me dangerous and the funky chicken dance is scaring me a little.

I have never really been proud … when I am desperate. I revert back to a different era. Human contact. Conversation. This happened to me just last night. One of my goats was really crying alot. It was weird. When I was in the barn, touching her, handling her or even giving her an injection … she was fine. Never had an animal that would not even flinch when you gave it an injection. But the minute I began to walk away … she began to bleat. The closer to the house … the louder she got. Was she hungry? Was she in pain? Was I doing something wrong? Is she stressed? It’s crazy … I began to talk to her like a human and say … “Look, I really don’t know what’s up with you … I’m giving you everything I think you need?” All of a sudden it sounded like relational arguments conversations that Lori and I have. I was tempted to say “What do you want from me?” or “I’m doing the best I can.” … but after all … it was a goat I was talking to.

Back on point, I found a neighbor who has real experience in raising goats. I found her number and I called her. Now, she never had met me. She was busy. But, she shared her knowledge, her time, her experience with me. A complete stranger. How nice is that? Man, I learned more in a short 10 minute phone call than I did in two days research with Dr. Google. As I listened to her instructions on my bleating goat mistress … she would say … “A lady who had raised goats all of her life told me this” or “The old timers way of doing this … is” … there is was, stories being handed down from generation to generation. I believe that is what we are truly lacking in our fast-food society, real authentic community. I feel like I made a real friend last night. Not a virtual friend, but a real friend. If she called me back tonight and asked … “can you give me a hand, my truck broke down” … I would be there in a heart beat.

If we don’t watch it we will allow technology via the internet to be our only friend. Spending hours “talking” to people online. Be honest … we really are not talking … we are typing. My venture into the Farmer’s Market scene is really just finding people to talk to people … which leads to … neighbors helping neighbors. Oh, and thanks Tracey.

Singing the Praises of Goat’s Milk

// April 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Farming, Health

I don’t know if you heard or not … but I bought a dairy goat. The breed is called Lamacha and her name is Angel. It is quite appropriate because … well, it is bit of a story, each year my wonderful mother and father in law give us all a very nice Christmas gift. We get $100 cash in some type of fancy creative gift receptacle. I think I hang onto mine the longest. I tuck it into my wallet and wait until I can get something I really want. Last year I think I hung onto it until we went on our cruise … a full 10 months!! This year … I spent it on Angel. A pretty good investment considering goat’s milk at the store costs about $3.75 a quart. I love to buy something that keeps on giving!

Well, the milk has so many health qualities. For one, Tyler (my grandson – 1 years old) — has no tolerance for cow’s milk. He has horrible respiratory problems when he drinks it. Always a runny nose and lots of drainage. We researched the goats milk … bought him a quart … the first night … slept great and awoke with NO runny nose and he loves it. Surprisingly, goat’s milk is “the” choice for most of the world. But not as popular in the US. Unlike cow’s milk there is no need to homogenize goat’s milk. While the fat globules in cow’s milk tend to separate to the surface, the globules in goat’s milk are much smaller and will remain suspended in solution.

Goat’s milk is a very good source of calcium and the amino acid tryptophan. It is also a good source of protein, phosphorus, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and potassium. Other research has found some anti-inflammatory compounds (short-chain sugar molecules called oligosaccharides) to be present in goat’s milk. These oligosaccharides may make goat’s milk easier to digest, especially in the case of compromised intestinal function. We have a good family friend who had Crohn’s disease … who changed her diet that included goat’s milk … and now no symptoms from Chrohns. Don’t get her started … she has great claims about goat’s milk. We have also learned that Aid’s patients benefit in a big way from goat’s milk. Plus if you are looking for something that has a lot of protein and low fat … you guessed it … goat’s milk.

So Angel, is already helping us. We plan to learn to make yogurt, cheese and soap from the fruit of Angel’s utters. Now that is funny. Our Angel has utters not wings.

Not a lot of people can picture me milking a goat … but I am always up for learning new things that can enhance my resume.

wog