Just another Day on the Farm

Bird Breeding Plans for 2015

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

If I get my way, the year of 2015 will be filled with lots and lots of wee chicks, ducklings and goslings..

On the goose front, my bonded pair, honk and pom are getting all new digs, a small corner of the big pasture is being fenced out for their use only, they are getting a new fancy custom built goose nesting house to increase success in hatch rates

Then Come the ducks.. Five Hens, o my. We have Black, Black an White Barred, We have Chocolate barred and Chocolate and White and we have Blue. If I can get two clutches per hen, we could have a lot of ducklings indeed

The Males are Black and White carrying chocolate or Black Barred Carrying Chocolate and Blue. The Duck hens are getting new nesting built as well, as last year we had a number of hen lost on the last week on the nests due to the fox, so we have redone our plans for this year in a plan to give each hen her own space but more protection.

Next Comes the Chickens, they are going to be split into two different breeding groups (with a possible third later in the year..

All dual purpose heavier brown egg layers are going with Big Red, there are four different breed of hens, it should be a great mix of hybred crossing..

The smaller sized hens, that are a mix of easter eggers or my lovely French breed, I have three daughters out of Wash, who are all the correct color, pattern and feather markings of what the hens of the breed should have, I really want to find more of this breed.

(my late rooster) are all being mated by Snickers, this will produce smaller birds then above but great layers, colored eggs and should give me very broody hens.

The guinea fowl, well.. we will figure sex once they start to lay, we have six unsexed at this time plus the one white male, in the six, we have a great mix of colors including chocolate

The Bird Sale is at the end of March this year, and who knows what I will come home with.. but I can say, its will not be peacocks, quail or doves lol

I would like to come home with at least one new rooster, but I doubt it will be that simple…

Posted in Critters | Tagged Bird breeding plans for 2015 | 2 Comments

Happy Anniversary Dear Husband

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Family | 5 Comments

Roughly composted uses in the garden

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I know that not everyone has access to farm compost or even backyard rabbit or bird compost but everyone that does has a little issue.. most of the time their compost looks nothing like what you see in the stores or the screened compost that is in the magazine or local garden group.

O no, our compost has chunks, hunks and lots of straw bits in it.. if you are lucky enough to have a tractor and a few years, you can turn it into rich black gold, but for those of us that are doing it all by hand, it took long enough to haul it, water it and give it some turns to keep it going..

I know, I know you just looked at that and thought, that is uncomposted stuff.. right..

Wrong, that is one full year of naturally composted bedding with nothing done to it, its last years feeding pack to be accurate.. its a combo of hay-straw, horse, cow and sheep with a bit of goose and the odd chicken poo and despite the look of it here, its composted down in size to a third of what it started at in just one year..

Lots of composting going on in there to reduce in size by 2-3rds, its filled with worms and all other goodness, I know this because its a chicken magnet, let them out and the hens are flocking to it to have a good scratch and find session.. This also helps greatly in regards to working the first layer lightly..

Looks a bit better dumped out right, at least now you can see its pretty light and fluffy and that the biggest pieces are about half the size of a horse apple, now you are most likely thinking, I sure would not want that anywhere near my root veggie double dug areas and I agree but this is perfect for in the garden use

Have you figure out why yet..

hmmmm. It allows the always busy gardener to both bed down and feed plants, in this case six wheel barrels where needed to bed down and fall feed the rhubarb patches, the bedding in the mix will give some added protection to the wintering plants, the compost at a year old and well after its first heat up is no longer hot to the plants but it will still be lots to do heavy feeders like rhubarb..

sure in the spring, I will rake back a touch on the main plants but not much and they would easily push threw that 2 to 3 inch deep cover. This type of compost works very well for heavy feeders, but that’s not all, it can also be placed and spread to about a two inch depth on any area that will have above ground plants for the 2015 season.

Posted in gardening | Tagged compost | 4 Comments

Boxing Day Melt.. Ducky Fun Photos

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Critters | Tagged Bathing duck photos, mild winter temps effecting the farm, odd weather pattern, winter melting | 5 Comments

Warm temps..

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Rain has come to the farm, it was a green Christmas, my plans for dressing up the horses, rain, my plan for going riding, rain.

But today, o toady is overcast but its currently dry, there is only one big issue.. my whole farm thinks spring has arrived..

Birds are playing in the pond and breeding, rooster are Randy and chasing hens around the yard..

Sigh, and my poor garden, I have plants that are going.. hmmm, cold then warm, now spring rains.. to which I am going!! NO, NO!!! and in some cases I am bedding them down with straw to keep them without the light as much..

I am always amazed at how tough feverfew is.. but its pretty green is very temping to the birds..

However it has allowed one thing.. unlike the folks that are heading out for big boxing day sale, we are dealing with one thing today.. Poo!

Yup, we are going to give all the pens a once over, most of them have been done, but this warm snap allows us to get one more final clean up before we hit the deep pack method for the cold winter..

We will see what I have the energy for, I intend to do some compost adding to certain parts of the garden, cleaning all outside runs (as there is very little work left on the inside runs) and doing some small garden clean up..

If after all that, I have the energy, I am going to go do a couple wheelbarrel loads of horse poo pickup from the pasture and move it to be composted up by the front drive garden..

I will drag the camera around with me and we will see if I get anything worth sharing 🙂

Posted in gardens | Tagged animal bedding, Cleaning animal pens, compost, Prep work in the garden for fall | 2 Comments

Goals for 2014..

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I truly sucked at getting goals done for 2014.. It started good but life got rough..

Raither then focus on what I did not get done.. how about we have a look at what did get done!

A new Partner entered my life, Caleb joined the farm, Brandy Girl officially became the hubby horse. Caleb is working hard at being the OTHER man in my life. I attended my first horse clinic and also went on my first pink cancer ride, it was the first time I have ridden with hundreds plus horse and rider teams.

We added in a new Ewe.. Polar Ice

A new Ram.. Whiskey Jack

On the pig front, we added in Apple and Ella

We also added in some new rabbits, and hatched chicks and ducklings and of course adorable lambs..

and last but by no means least, Sunny D joined the farm..

We had a amazing garden year.. very productive

our new raspberry patch surprised us with a very reasonable first year harvest, the berries were outstanding!

We grew sweet potatoes for the first time..

With all the new during the year came loss.. some expected in the sense of regular farming life, and some hovering on the edges, due to health or age related issues..

My beloved Step-Dad Ken passed away in the fall, pretty much taking up the fall in terms of hubby running the farm and myself being out with my mother..

However on a critter note, it was a very rough year indeed, we lost much loved pets this year, more then I would have wanted in such a short time..

Our sweet munchkin passed away on her 14th year with us..

Our beloved lily also passed away at the age of 14 and half, I will be honest, I knew I would miss her but its felt more then I expected, while Sunny has to a point filled the gap that munchkin left.. the miss piece to my hound family is very much a wound yet.

We did not get the work on the house done near to the degree wanted, we did not get many things done due to ill health on my part mainly..

But we did get a few fun things done.. hubby was published again, did interviews on the radio about his writing etc

And I made it comic-con to meet and get my photo taken with a favorite actor of mine while most know him from Lord of the rings for me… Lord Vacco from Riddick and Judge Dredd! O YA!

Cheers to all my readers.. 2014 is almost behind us and a new year is coming..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 5 Comments

Introducing Ella-

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks,

As I have touched on, Miss Piggy and Kermit are going to freezer camp, leaving just apple to grow thoughout the winter. Pigs are very much herd animals and its unfair to grow out a single pig, they do so much better if there is at least of their own with them..

So I was on the look out for a second weaner piglet to add to the farm, and lucked out in being able to have a friend find Ella for me.. she bought a number of piglets to raise for herself and that meant that we got a overall reduced price per piglet.

Ella is a female piglet with great build and conformation she is a white and black spotted gal, so so cute! She is not that friendly yet, but its coming, she will let me touch her a bit already without running away, she is getting bold enough to come up and touch my hand with her snout.. she is watching her big sister Apple, who loves her rubs and pats, so that will help a great deal in taming her down.

Apple and Ella are not staying on the farm as breeding females, they are being raised till typical butcher size and then will be going to freezer camp.. Having said that, they will keep each other company over the winter, sleeping together, playing together and in general making sure both of them enjoy life on the farm.

But do not worry, they are going to be put to work, they will be moved from deep packed pen to pen in the big barn and will work to break up and turn the compost, I love the difference between regular packed bedding vs Pig turned bedding.. Night and DAY!

Then I am going to train them both to hot wire as I plan to use them a great deal in the spring as garden helpers. They will turn soil, they will spread and turn in bedding, they will dig up wild parsnip spring roots and eat them all up.

I think they are working for me.. they think they are having a blast doing what pigs do!

The best of both worlds.. and in the end.. Happy Pigs-Happy Farmgal

Posted in 100 mile diet, Pigs | Tagged Raising Weaner Piglets, Using Pigs as plows, Using pigs to turn compost | 3 Comments

Rainbow Christmas Logs Recipe

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

So easy, So Good, so pretty..

Half a cup of butter-low heat, 12 oz of chocolate, be it good melting or be it chips, can go dark, med or even use chocolate squares, 1 cup icing sugar and one small 10 or so bag of mini marchmellows and some coconut- med to long in length- sweetened is best.

Melt your butter and chocolate together, then add sugar, mix well but fast, pour over your mashmellows, stir and devide in half onto coconut sprinkled wax paper, drop in spoonfuls to create a log shape, then roll then, chill.. slice and serve..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged rainbow christmas log recipe | 4 Comments

O my that is a lot of Beef..

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Well, we sent Glenda to Freezer camp and not counting bones, organs or hide after being aged for two weeks and then done in a very certain cuts and sizes for us, the way it was done was tailored for our personal eating choices.. We can home with hundreds of pounds of lovely, o so lovely beef..

We did so much better costwise compared to Marty in terms of amount paid out per pound for Glenda.. but that is to be expected, as Glenda was born on our farm, raised on her mothers milk, grazed on our pasture and was never grain fed only feed extras from our garden or fodder growing.. This effected her growth which was much slower then the average beef calf of her age, she was a couple hundred pounds lighter having not been grain finished, if you were selling to make a profit that would have really hurt but it was a choice and one I am ok with.

I do admit that I love the much much reduced butcher costs that come with a beef, I pay a 80 dollar kill fee plus 65 sent per pound cut and wrap cost (note, I do not get any extras done, I do all my own sausage making etc) where as I do a 45 dollar kill fee per lamb plus the cut and wrap costs, so when I take lambs to be done, I get a fraction of the meat per lamb with a overhead that adds up fast on the kill fee costs..

it both Costs and takes longer to raise a beef but on the butcher end, its certainly more cost effective!

On the flip side of dealing with this, I wanted to move the rest of the fruit and veggies from the big freezer that is my meat freezer in order to make room for the beef, and we figured out that my second freezer was only half working, half was super fridge cold and half still frozen but needless to say, canning, and cooking was required to save the still frozen and the just thawed but ice cold went to the farm critters as we could not be use how long, but nothing was bad per say.. still a loss in the end.. but much less then it could have been

We will however need to buy a second or new freezer over the next few weeks before the pigs come back from freezer camp

Did you buy any meat in bulk this year, a quarter or half a pig or beef, did you support your local farmer or did you order though a great local butcher.

Posted in farm | Tagged beef, raising a beef calf, raising your own beef, raising your own meat, Saving money by growing your own food | 7 Comments

Woody Beets…

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I am a huge fan of trying new seeds and growing new strains and kinds of plants in the garden, sometimes its a huge success and sometimes its a big old flop, it won`t grow, or it does but I am pushing the planting in terms of weather or days, and its just starting to produce an bam.. Frost … all dead

but I was sad about these ones, they will get one more try this coming year.. mainly because they grew so well and I am leary on if they got harvested at the right time or not.. or what happened at all in the end of the garden season.

You see while I have notes on things up until I fell and broke bones, I am truly unsure of what the watering was like afterwards to harvest time, now we have really nice regular rains, so in truth, that does not really cut it with me..

I really! dislike plants that need to be babied at that stage in the game.. as seeds, yes, as wee tikes ok.. as bigger.. DEAL .. LOL

now that other thing that can cause woody beets is overgrown.. they don`t look over grown in terms of what they should be, but I don`t know when they were taken out of the ground, because I was in alberta..

So did they come out late… it would have been a matter of weeks at most.. Again.. really, I don`t like that fussy of a plant.. Sometimes , I like to stagger havesting of beets and I have never had a issue..

IF anyone know of other reason`s for woody beets, I am all ears..

These get one more try this coming summer and if they do it again.. they get moved to the black list of DO NOT GROW 🙂

the pigs and the hounds are really enjoying them though.. yum, yum