Spring is so close....

But not here yet.  I love it when spring is finally here and I can get started on really getting stuff done.  Winter seems to be a season for me to endure and just get through.  I only go out to the barn because I have to, not because I just want to hang out.  Of course I still spend time visiting with all my animals and just watching the chaos, they put on a good show!

Update:  Fanny the sow is now in the freezer, after a disappointing litter of piglets at Christmastime.  She had 15 piglets, but by the time we got out to the barn, 7 were already dead.  Two were too cold to eat and we brought them into the house to heat up.  I had to milk colostrum from Fanny and let me tell you, pigs are not good dairy animals!  It was really hard to get some, but I tried.  Anyways, by the next day she had squashed three more, and by the end of the second day we were down to the two cold piglets and one strong one that had gotten 24 hours of nursing in.  I decided they were all going to be bottle pigs and spend the next week giving hourly feedings and playing nursemaid to the babies.    The weakest guy lasted three days, and a few days later the other cold one died.  We ended up with Rosie, the single surviving piglet.  It was a crazy amount of work to bottle feed the piglets, plus the cost of goat milk from the store, which was not cheap, but it was a learning experience and we have got one super friendly, fat red piglet out in the barn now!

We still have the two gilts and the boar from Fanny's first litter, and because we butchered Fanny after Christmas we didn't have room in the freezer for the boar and gilt that were supposed to get processed.  And now, because of the delay, the boar has bred his two sisters and I guess we will be having some inbred piglets for spring.  Not what I wanted, but I am not going to butcher a pregnant pig.  A friend of our was quite impressed with the boar and wants to use him on his sows, so he also gets a pardon.  For now.

Annie and Ivy, the two goats, currently have free run of the farm. They are just too cute!  We needed the stall they were in for turkeys and they do a great job of taking care of themselves.  We do have a hard time keeping them out of the grain buckets, but happily, they don't overheat, just make mess.  But we have a stall in the works for them because I know that once the gardens get going, I will want them gone!  I also have to try to come up with a fenced area for them that will hold them in.  Just have to figure out where.

So not much else is going on, I just want to get into the garden and start planting!

Got Goats

Yes, we're still here! I knew I wouldn't be a good blogger..... Anyways, farm update, we took the turkeys and the last 6 roosters to be processed today. Not sad to see the roosters go (we still have three left) and I'm sure the hens will all be more relaxed as well. The turkeys, on the other hand, I will miss. They really grew on me with their mellow, dopey personalities. I loved how they would follow me around the farm even though they didn't know why! The Toms were getting pretty big and yesterday was the first time I heard them "gobble". But Christmas is coming and they were getting really big. Such is the farm life.

And we have two little goat does, Annie and Ivy. Amy wanted goats and we bought one for her Birthday gift and the other she bought herself. We got them from friends and they appear to be Alpine crossbreds, hopefully good for milking! They are a bit small to breed this winter, so they won't be bred until next year. It will be a while until we have some farm fresh milk again. They sure are cute though!

I have now completed the second module of my Modern Shepherd course at the Agriculture College in Truro, I will have two more modules after Christmas. We still don't have any sheep, but I keep hoping. I highly doubt Santa will put one in my stocking though!

Producing Food

Finally we are seeing some food production! The garden has been doing well, with the help of some home made manure tea. I put a garbage bin in the corner with a pile of manure in the bottom. I filled it with water and after a few days it was ready to use. I keep a small pail and a ladle nearby and fertilize the plants once a week. After I use some of the manure tea (sounds nicer than poopy water!) I refill the garbage pail with more water so that it sits for the next week. It's working for me.

The peas are all ready, the kale is taking over, and the lettuce is big enough to pick. I pulled a few carrots but they aren't quite big enough. The tomatoes a popping out all over and I am anxiously awaiting some red! Also, the raspberries are red and I have a bowlful in the freezer.

We took our first 50, well 49, chickens for processing the other day and we are starting to sell. The leftover chicken that didn't go to the butcher is still in the barn, she was saved by her broken leg. She is small, so I figured that she could just hang out and get bigger and heal. She is getting better too, she can stand now. Our next 90 meat birds will go in about two weeks, so she will probably head out with them.

The turkeys are out in the pen that the first group of chickens had been in and they are loving the grass. It didn't take them long to start grazing. I really love having our birds outdoors on pasture. I am sure they are happier and healthier for it and it makes me feel good.

The piglets are now six weeks old and I think that their mother is ready for them to go! She certainly has no interest in sharing her food with them! They have been growing well and the one gilt that she stepped on is no longer limping. She also had a large umbilical hernia that I am guessing occurred when she was squashed. So I wrapped her belly with duct tape and she seems to be doing much better. I will be listing them for sale soon, but we will keep one gilt for sure. The only black and white one and I already have named her Daisy. I think I will name all future sows with flower names. A rose by any other name...!

Babies

Hot Farm in the Summer

OK, so I haven't posted in a while so I will play catch-up. After Ginger had Bullseye, we bought a Holstein bull calf from a friends dairy. That would be Bullwinkle. To save on gas, we brought him home in the back of the car; it made for some cute photos! For the first week I had to keep Ginger tied up while he fed, but eventually she stopped kicking him away and he is now adopted! A couple of weeks ago the two bulls became steers and all is well.

Crystal the Highland cow had her calf, another boy. I swear that if I had never seen those cows before and someone showed me a photo of that calf, I wouldn't be able to guess what kind of animal it is! They are so cute, like a cross between a grizzly bear and a cow. However, last month we decided that we just can't afford the buy hay all year round, because our fields couldn't keep up with all of our grazing animals. So we sold the Highlands, and in a way it's a relief because I just don't know if I could butcher them. They are so mellow and personable and if I ever need a cow to just be a pet, I would get them again.

And then Fannie had her piglets. Unfortunately, the night before when the pigs were put back in the barn from their paddock, one of the kids let Kermit go in Fannie's stall ( like he used to do) and Fannie hurt him badly. It was too late by the time we got him out and he died. Then the next day Fannie had 14 piglets, all went well and the babies were all healthy. But true to all of my research, she squashed some, three in the first three days. But then the following week, another one. So we moved them outside to the paddock, and she squished another one. We now have been holding steady at 8 piggies left. One little girl has an injured leg and limps along, but she doesn't seem to be getting worse or ill, so I am leaving her be. We did have one little guy that Fannie stepped on and skinned his leg pretty badly, but lots of bandaging and a course of penicillin has fixed him right up. I sure hope that's the end of our piglet problems. Except, we still have to castrate the boys. I am afraid to do it myself, so I have to find someone to help. Hopefully before they get too big.

The chickens are running the farm now, we have more than I ever thought we would have. We are at 141 meat birds, the first 50 are ready to go now. Then next week we get that last bunch of 50. By law, we can't have more than 200 meat birds, so that's what we are doing this year. Next year we are going to get a license for free range poultry and go bigger. We have been using chicken tractors out in the pasture and it is working great. The chickens actually look forward to the fresh grass every day and I hope that will make for some tasty chicken. Plus, less shoveling manure!

We still have our Delaware chicks and Rhode Island Red cross chicks, they are about two months old now. I can't wait till they start laying, we need more eggs! Jamie has been able to sell a lot at work and the neighbors have been buying them too. We get about a dozen and a half a day, so we need to increase production! Our little hens that were from our first two hatches this year have started to lay, so we get 3 - 4 little eggs from them too. We killed and ate the two roosters from the first hatch, not too meaty, but they were tasty! There is one guy left in the barn and he is going soon. He is annoying to the hens and one loud rooster is enough. Archie is the man of the farm and since he is good looking and mellow, he is guaranteed to remain out of the pot!

And the garden is now growing. After I first set up and planted, it just kind of lived. Nothing was growing, and we got hit with a fungus. I treated it with sulfur, which worked, but still nothing would grow. I think that the store bought dirt and compost I used must have been tainted with something. We actually had kale seeds fall outside of the raised boxes and is growing profusely, and the kale I planted is a tiny sprig. So I added a liquid fertilizer, put seaweed on, watered with manure tea, and put manure on. Finally, after a good rainstorm, things started growing. Everything looks good now, although the cucumbers, squash and zucchini are stunted. The potatoes are doing great though, I planted them in feed bags and used manure and dirt from the yard. No more store bought dirt for us.

Well we have been here for one full year now and I think that it has been a good year. We have learned a lot and we are still ready to take on new things. Like sheep. I want to get sheep.

More Boys!

Well, it seems that we are on a roll! On 28 March, Ginger delivered a chocolate brown bull calf. His dad was a Holstein, so he does have a few little white spots, but he has his mothers beautiful Jersey face. He has been named Bullseye and is destined for the freezer. But for now we are enjoying his super-cute calf personality!

Now that I have to milk again my hands are always sore! Ginger had a lot of edema in her udder, but it has gone down a lot now. I think I can see now why she was voted off the dairy farm. Her udder is quite low and stretched out which could lead to mastitis problems. So far we have been lucky, and the worst has just been a bit of blood in one quarter. Now that the edema has mostly passed, the blood is gone, but it still had me worried.

The bonus is having extra milk in the house! I made crock-pot yogurt and it turned out great! With the addition of homemade strawberry jam, it was good enough that my kids even ate it! I also made a gallon of chocolate pudding, that ended up as pudding pops in the freezer. The kids weren't too big on it until I put a stock in it and froze it! Yesterday was homemade mozzarella on homemade pizza, and it was a success. I am always looking for new things to try with the milk.

In other news, Fannie the sow now has a tiny companion. We bought a purebred Berkshire piglet boar with hopes that he will someday be our herdsire one day. He took to Fannie right away, and she is tolerant of him. He is so tiny next to her! Hopefully she is pregnant and will farrow in June. As long as we get some females in the litter, then Kermit the pig will have some mates.

New Boy In Town!

Diva had a bouncing baby boy yesterday, and he's doing great! Bay with lots of white, but since his Dad is grey there is a chance he could turn grey as well.

Months ago my daughter Amy had asked if the foal could be hers, and so this little guy is going to belong to her. She is still working on names, he needs a registered name and a barn name. The pressure is on!

On another note, when I put Ginger (the Jersey cow) outside this morning, I noticed swelling under her tail and her udder seems bigger. So we may be seeing a calf sometime soon. Very exciting!