foolishness!

so happy to be back to milking. calendula is seriously skittish about milking and i have to hobble her. i hate doing that but it calms her down enough that she will stand still and let me milk her.

our turkey laid her first egg yesterday! in another month we are going to try to hatch some. it's a lovely pale rose color with purple speckles. it's a lovely spring day today. i see sowing in my forecast!

say cheese!

animals around the farm pose for pictures!the turkeys peek in through the goat door at me.

this is our lone surviving weasel massacre chicken from last fall. she spent most of the winter inside with us (at night). then, after i put her in the big coop in a cage to protect her from the big chickens, i let her out to roam when i let the rest out and she wandered into the pasture where the great pyrs got her and played football with her. you can still see the bit of wound still healing up. as greg says, she should have died twice but is still alive and kicking. she has abandoned the big coop, hiding out in the shed and roosting in there at night. when she gets a bit bigger, i'll start putting her in the coop for the night.

moon dog, laughing at the silliness of it all.

happy spring!

with it comes birth...calendula, our first time freshener had a boy a few hours ago. she's a great mama, very attentive and loving.
and yesterday, our 2nd buck rue came home. he's been bunking with a friend all winter, servicing her ladies. he has grown since we waved goodbye last september. he is now sporting a beard and is bigger than his mama! he's a handsome devil!turkeys are hard to photograph...they are too antsy. they too have grown. they show signs of mating, i'm hoping the female starts laying eggs soon and hatches a nest full.
we still have 2 more does to freshen but i'm not sure of their due date. i tried to breed one to deliver earlier, but she didn't so i'm not sure when she's due. the 2nd i'm hoping will be in may although she's the self nurser (rue's mom) so i'm not even sure i'll be able to milk her. i'm hoping now that she's been dry for a few months she won't do it again but i doubt i'll be that lucky. if she reverts to her old ways, she'll be shipped off to a friend who wants a goat to keep brush at bay in their pasture, possibly along with some or all of our sheep (they need sheep to keep their pastures 'mowed' and offered to pasture ours for us).

feeding our own

back in may and august, i wrote about how we were going to attempt to grow some crops for the goats, sheep, turkeys and chickens this winter. today, i checked on my crops and wanted to report on my observances.

crops were planted at the end of august this year. i should have started a bit earlier i think, maybe 1 month earlier. also, i need to find a better seed supplier. the local place i ordered from (3 orders this year) were less than impressive in customer service, delivery and performance. strike 3, you're out!

the wwoofers planted the seeds and i'm a bit confused as to how they planted some of them. i'm hoping they planted them out correctly...

anyway, here's what was planted, how much and how it is doing:
chard 9 rows (8' x 19') there are about 6 plants total growing now
cabbage 4 rows (12' x 57') doing so/so...about 1/4 - 1/3 is growing
beets 3 rows (3' x 54') crop failure 1 plant
parsnips 7 rows {7' x 30') crop failure about 3 plants growing
kohlrabi 10 rows (7' x 30') so/so...about 1/4 is growing
rutabagas 5 rows (7' x 30') excellent success full plot
kale 8 rows (7' X 30') so/so about 1/4 - 1/2 is growing
spinach 5' x 10' bed complete failure
radishes 5' x 10' bed excellent success full plot and these suckers are HUGE
carrots 9 rows (5' x 30') excellent...my best crop yet
tyfon volunteers, not sure how big an area as they are wide spread excellent

so far, i've harvested some of the rutabagas. we are going to eat them for dinner tonight. the goats enjoyed the tops but didn't touch the roots.

sunchokes will be part of the fodder this winter. they grow abundantly in our garden and we never eat even a 1/4 of the patch.

the sunflowers did ok. i hung them to dry and the birds robbed them. i should have put them in paper bags.

we also had a lot of milo self feed in the garden (from the goat bedding). since it is hard for me to kill off any useful plant, i let them grow as a quasy feed experiment. today, i cut off a bunch of the tops and tossed them to the goats. they loved them. i'll cut the rest and store them in a feed bag for this winter or perhaps save them and sow a field next spring. i'm thinking it might be something to sow in an 'undesireable' area and then in the winter, tether some goats out there to eat it up. i'm going to feed them some stalks tomorrow and see if they would like that part too.

anyone else have any luck with crop growing for animal feed this year?

still limping along on my 'puter..

woodruff, our ram, originally a 5 horn, down to 4

he wants to be friendly but still isn't sure. i'll win him over!

shearing our 1st sheep. they haven't been sheared in at least a year and this one was the most matted .

our wwooer and greg trimming away...it took all three o' us 2 hours to get her done using 2 hand shears and a leatherman (the saw blade to cut through the dreads).

butchered job but hopefully feeling much better.

turkeys! one disappeared, we are down to three now. no more free range until they are bigger.

what are you looking at?! sheep with attitude.




so far, betony and sassafras won't mingle with the new sheep. hopefully they will all get acquainted soon.

ridge named our great pyr pups thelma and louise.

the trip was great. we got to meet a bunch o' wonderful people (including gina and her beautiful family) and see a lot o' beautiful landscapes through ohio and indiana. i wish we had had the time to travel more slowly and enjoy everything more but i'm grateful we got the time we did. the owners o' the sheep were very nice and we spent saturday morning hanging out with woodruff's previous owners and touring their place.

thank goodness for spell check which helps fill in the blanks.