Just another Day on the Farm

Introducing the new layer ladies..

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

So, I have been looking at the layer flock and sighing just a touch, you see once I butchered out the meat hens, it left me with five two coming three year olds, one four coming five year old hen and one five coming six year old hen, a two year old rooster and a nice young this years rooster.

Now my one hen hatched out four lovely little hens! so that was great news but I normally like to have eight to ten hens for the farm, which meant that I was short hens, I had been on a waiting list for chicks not once but twice over the summer, I was taking mixed run chicks so I knew that I might only get x amount of hens, but the first hatch didn`t happen and when the second did, it was limited and they decided that they were going to hold them back for breeding stock, and by then, if I got wee chicks, I would be growing them out for the winter, not ideal in my mind, wee chicks should be born at the time of year where they can free range, hunt bugs and get that first heavy push of growth when they have access to everything that spring, summer and fall can bring them.

So I started looking but its seemed that I had two things that I was unhappy with, folks were wanting to sell breeding pairs, and I didn`t want the roosters or they wanted a crazy price for the hens, twenty to twenty five dollars a hen is not! going to happen.

But I was peeking on kijji now and again and finally my luck changed, and a quick email back and forth and bam, thank you so much, I had a appointment to go pick out my new girls. I could not have been more happy with them.. they range between four to five months in age, give or take a month or so. They are a lovely mix of bard rock, white sussex, and red Rohde Island, with a little easter egg dad thrown in on the reds, I should have nice big dark eggs from the bard, big light tan from the sussex and green or pink eggs from the red girls!

They had been born on the property from a broody hen!, they were true farm hens, put away for the night but day free ranging, but sweet and trusting with folks, interested and smart..

They are all getting S names and because their colors are different then my current birds, I will be able to easily track their ages over the next couple years! and I got them for ten each, which is a fair price indeed.

Here is hoping that they will be with me for a couple years and that some of them will make broody hen rating and stay till they are four or five. They have been checked over and appear both themselves to be in excellent health an as they were kind enough to give me a poo sample on the trip home in their crate, everything looks ship, shape and they settled right down in their new digs and started eating and drinking and checking it all out!

Posted in Critters | Tagged Broody raised chicks, new chickens, New young layers to add to the flock | 7 Comments

I need a challange..

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Something to fire me up about? Short term, a week, longer term, the month of nov?

Want a new recipe a day? Want a full week of making soap each day challenge? Want a share a old skill each day challenge, want a fermenting challenge? Want a canning recipe per day? Want a butcher week?

Talk to me folks? I will listen, and who knows what will come on the blog 🙂

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Scales and Balance..

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I had been quite pleased that I was able to slowly and steady losing the pounds over this summer, I was down in weight, but even more important to me, I felt good and I was down a full size in cloths but the real test was that I could swing on up on the horse and go!

Loved it, those weeks of steady riding saw the pounds melting off and then came my trip, and I gained 15 pounds over those three weeks, YIKES!~!

ouch, that just hurts, and so when I say the scale I knew that I would need to get right back on my farm program and get it together, but I also know that I wanted to journey daily and that is just way to much for the farm blog, I don’t have a issues with a one a week post on it for overviews etc, but daily meal blogging is not what my farm blog is about, but I did like the idea of having that response back, I often find that If I am to do something for the blog, that I get it done, not just because I want to and plan to but it happens better, faster and with more thought, the more I plan to write about it.

So here is the link to the Farmgals weight loss dreams and goals blog

http://farmgalsweightlossdreamsandgoals.wordpress.com/

So pop over and check it out if the subject interests you, and I will just do a week overview on the main farm blog..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

The ride.. LOL..

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Now sit right back while I tell this tale, after a second restful sleepin, I woke feeling not bad and I looked outside and saw, no rain, no wind and blue/cloud sky.. perfect.. the time had come, I have been waiting for it.. o yes that perfect melding.. that moment..

No bad fall weather combined with the freedom to ride! yup, it was time to eat breakfast, tack up and go for my birthday ride..

this is the first ride for samwell, with his new tack and the plan is me on Brandy, Dh on Samwell and we are meeting two others locally for the ride.

Well, I swing up and brandy lets me know that she is not happy about me being on her today, she moans and groans and says, no way ma, I don’t want your weight today, and she lets me know with a buck, which thankfully, I don’t come off and I dismount, work her a touch, and put her on a line and get Dh up to see if something is not right, or if she just does not want me, she is perfect for him and now we are burning daylight and late for our meet, so up on sam I go, and we head off the farm, down the road to the big pasture and we are doing fine, we struggle a bit meeting the new horses but all in all sam is a total gentleman, and I am very pleased as this was the first meet and greet between him and two new horses, and out we head but sam has the biggest ground covering walk you have ever seen and when Brandy try’s to trot to catch up, and Dh says, no.. she decides to buck him!, and not just one, I didn’t get to see but I was told one start, three good ones, and one finish, wow Nellie..

Dh stays in the saddle and gets her to stop and under control, way to go DH!!! you rock, and we switch riders for the third time in the day, Farmer T takes Brandy aka Snot Face and Dh takes Ruby and we are off again,..

We rode the big field and then into the bush we went, First Sam was awesome, he picks his footing well, he picks up and though brush like a dream, he goes in mud and muck and just powers though the other side, he rides fair and does not try and run his rider into bush, and we did some pretty good down the hills and one good up the hill and he just was yes, I think I can, I think I can..

The other two horses left us half work horses in the dust as they trotted and moved on down the trail, but Brandy, o miss Brandy gave Farmer T a heck of a work out, first it was, i’m not going in the bush, then it was, I will step over that tree but not that one, and then the hill.

Ok, so Miss Molly and Dh and their horses do the hill, no worries, Brandy is next and she starts it and then stops, and she paws the hill, like she was going to china, then she tries backing up the hill, funny how that didn’t quite work so well.. So she is backed off and I power on up it just fine with sam

, figure, she will want to do the hill just so she does not get left behind.. both right and wrong, she starts to follow but she jumps straight up half way and then does the rest.. knot head..

Down the lane, up the road to a different lane and to a different area to ride and things are settling down, next time Miss Molly takes a run, Farmer T and Brandy join them and I get to see her Canter, not bad, not bad at all.. now we are wearing her out and she is settled down and mainly behaving, other then the odd kiss your butt thrown in.

Sam has done so well, right until we come down the running road and he thinks he is heading home, we let the two fast horses take off at speed and he really, really wants to join them, and I really don’t, I’m tired by then, well heck.. fighting to keep him from a trot or faster was all I could do upper body by then, finally we clear the running road and we are back on the main road home, and he settles down, and we are home, we untack Sam and Brandy and turn them out and the girls go for one more good runand then we all head in for hot chocolate..

After that I head home, can barely keep my eyes open for ten min and head for a nap, Dh wakes me after seven with hot soap (from yesterday, when I made a huge pot of beef, and barley soup with lots of veggies) and I am up for a little bit. It was worth it!

As you will see in the photo’s I am a bit more bundled then the rest, I am in three layers on top, plus a wind proof, hat, scarf, gloves, double layered wool socks etc.. I did not want a chill.. it was a lovely day- honest as you can see from the lack of wear on the other folks..

Posted in draft horse | Tagged 41's birthday ride | 3 Comments

new soap molds, snowmen, santa’s heads and little trees

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Look at the cute little soap molds I found at the dollar store, have not measured them yet but will be either 1.5 or 2 oz soaps, perfect the make a mixed kinds for stocking stuffers or as soap embeds for the bigger bars.. so cute..

also considering this one..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Bright Eyes is no longer with us.. no worries she is fine :)

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well those that have been reading for a good while will remember Bright eyes, the wee just hatched baby turtle that Dh rescued along with hundreds of tadpoles last spring in the heat of the drought, we set up horse troughs into water ponds and helped hundreds of baby toads grow and leave, and then there was bright eyes, fall came on and we didn’t know what to do, try and move her to the closest pond or bring her in.. we ended up bringing her in, and I had a crash course on turtle care, a tank was got, a floating turtle shelf, heating lamps, sun lamp and so on and so forth, we got live food and fish for her to hunt if she wanted to as well as baby turtle food etc, and she grew and grew..

This spring, she was moved to a big outdoor tank, and she had a log, and mud, and one corner that was a slew like area, and while we did feed her a bit, as much as possible, we let her live a turtle life, she hunted bugs, and worms and fish and eat different bits of greens and sun bathed on her rock or log..

Fall came again and this time, we felt that she was bigger and ready to go to the pond, she went out and ungrateful little thing, never looked back! Go little Bright eyes go.. we gave you the best start in life possible, the books say that most don’t make the first year, you are past that now, may you live to be a old turtle and ideally, we will catch sightings of you in the future.

We did the right thing rescuing you in the drought and now I feel we have done the right thing, made sure you could do well on your own and when you proved you could, we have set you back into the wilds in our neck of the woods..

I kinda miss her to a point and the rest, not, she was really a wild little thing all spring/summer and fall, and that is just how it should be, so I am in a way proud that she was a healthy well grown small turtle that should do well..

Posted in Critters | 4 Comments

Burning Daylight, nope burning hay!

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

As I still catching my breath, the next sink full of dish’s done, a load of laundry going, and Lily’s barley for her supper tonight simmering on the stove, just got back in from doing morning hay and getting the mail, my birthday CD is in! (Love how fast Amazon is!)

You see while the pasture has reached its very end, (in truth once again being overgrazed on the main pasture, there are major plans on this that are coming, but that’s a different update. needless to say, we have been feeding hay all summer long, just to make sure that everyone had just what they needed, along with the summer graze, it was not that much hay and it just makes me feel better knowing that it takes pressure off the pasture to a point and makes sure that even the most lowly of the herd can have enough to fill their tummies.

But now that the pasture is really done (we have had our first hard frosts), and without me bringing the bigger horse or cow out to graze in the front food forest area’s that I allow them to naturally keep into meadow, they went though a 800 plus pound bale of hay every two to two and half days, and that folks is a yikes, not that my hay supplier can’t give me enough hay but that is over a hundred a week in hay.. and that is just Yikes!

Needless to say, I was wringing hands just a touch out west at this crazy fast blow though the hay but if they need it, they need it-Right!?

Then I came home and watched my horses for a day, start to shake my head, start doing some math and then a frown was sure to cross my face.. time after time, watched one or the other horse dig deep in the bale in the bale feeder and then with a toss of their big head out comes ten, twenty or even thirty pounds of hay flying out of the feeder to the ground, shortly there after, a big or little foot trods on that good quality hay and then comes a pee and poo and look at that.. its become waste bedding..

Whoa!!! hold on there critters, amazing I am getting a full day and possible a two from the bale that I am hand feeding out, which is not to say they are not getting their needed feed and it is more work for me, but at this point well worth heading out every two hours to check and rake it back, you see, instead of putting it out for them in a huge amounts, I am putting out less and I am doing long lines for the sheep, and for the big critters, I have redone the fence a bit at the feeding area, and created a over the fence feeding, now when the horses toss the hay, I can just come back with the rake and flip clean hay back into the feeder, after the horse’s get the second crack at it, I rake it up and dump into what goes out to the sheep and look at that.. content horses, cows and cud chewing sheep, and a lot more bang for my buck on the hay..

More work for me for sure, but I will take it, till the lambs head out for freezer camp, the weekend is booked already, but we will see if there is any chance at all, that we can sneak in banging together a few more outside the horse feeders, ideally, this would slow down the amount of times, I would need to go and rake it back, but its really not that hard to do as long as I am home for the day 🙂

Think it might be time to also talk to my grain supplier about getting a load of whole barley to start the winter fodder growing, both for the milk cow and for the pigs, the expecting momma sheep and a limited amount for the horses.

This will help a great deal in slowing them down on the hay as well..

Posted in Critters | Tagged Finding a way to stretch the hay, growing winter fodder, Winter feeding | Leave a comment

yup, i’m 41 now..

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was running, dh got a ride in to work with farmer T so I could have the van. I got swap soap mailed out, got sam’s tack picked up, got the shopping done, with this cold, while the chili was homemade with our beef of course, I bought a high quality in house bakery cake and buns, a girl needs to know when to cut an run ,but almost 4 dollars for 6 buns is crazy by the way!

Hit the dollar store, got some comfy knitted hats, I do love my hats! and some very xmas flavoured two oz soap molds, they were little muffin rubber trays, but will make me santa’s, trees and snowmen just fine at a fraction of the cost for what I have seen online!

my present from my folks was helping me on the flight and trip costs! A truly amazing present. loved it! I am pretty sure that I am getting a new nightgown (which I use as a winter daydress on the farm from Nights in white flannel from my mother in law, my mom got me one seven years ago, it is much loved but wearing is showing on it now..

Got some horse mane and tail spray for my grooming, love mane and tail, use the shampoo for the hounds as well, have even used on my own hair in a pinch lol

Mixed feelings on the age thing, hmmm odd, 40 didn’t bother me and yet 41 seemed to be hitting me harder then I thought it would..

Well, I had better get a few more needed things done, coffee is gone, breaks over and back at, even though I am at half movement, otherwise end up coughing til lose my breath.

Posted in Family | Tagged birthday | 5 Comments

Sam’s Tack has arrived

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

There was a card at the mail box, and a custums bill due, even so I was super excited yesterday to have arranged to get the van and be able to pickup samwells new gear, still have his crooked stirrups and his bit coming from irivines by mail yet, but we have both to make do till they arrive.

yes, I need and did shift the saddle after I took the picture, I was just working on putting the saddle on for the first time.

Here is a better close up on his special saddle blanket that is done to help the saddle fit proper with his steeper shoulders, its different, while I tacked him up, as of yet the saddle has not been ridden yet, it sure is a heavy one, leather compared to my non-leather. We are going riding this weekend, I am not sure who is riding who yet, but the saddle will end up on whoever DH is riding, there is a inch difference in seat, mine is a 18 and this one is a 17 inch.

Posted in draft horse | Tagged Riding both horses, sam's tack has arrived | Leave a comment

ButterCup Squash.. hmmm.. not happy with its storage powers..

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

The squash were picked when ready, no touch of frost, they were cured carefully and properly and most of the different kinds are settled in and will be good for months and in some cases till next spring with a bit of care from us… but there has been one big failure on this and that would be the buttercup squash..

the plants grew well, they produced well, their poundage per plant was excellent and I didn’t mind the flesh and taste but this.. dear folks.. this is a deal breaker! Something that does this (well over 60 percent of them, and there are in three different storage area’s are all turning)

I don’t process squash right away in the fall, I have enough on my plate and in my dryers and canners, without needing to add in winter squash.. even the name says it.. its to last into the winter!

Has anyone had good luck with this one in the gardens and their root cellers, I might give this one another try once or twice but it will be a single plant or two, I will not invest in lots of these plants till they prove themselves to be much much better keepers then this years crop has..