Just another Day on the Farm

Now I’m not saying that we have not been eating well but I have been holding tight for my green box to arrive, which meant that fresh stuff in the house had become mightly lean, just potato’s and onions is what I am down to.

As you never know what you are going to get, it is always both a treat and sometimes I ah, what am I going to do with that..

I got two box’s and each box had

• One head of cailflower
• One bunch of broccili
• one ex-large yam
• one ex-large catalope
• 1 large mango
• 2 apples
• 2 pears
• 2 banana’s
• 2 tomato’s
• 1 large cucumber
• 2 large grapefruit

Certainly not what I would have picked for myself at the store, but I will be the first to admit that I made a salad first thing after getting home and it was wonderful.

I needed to decide if I was going to get the box’s for the month of march, which is my tradional eat only from the house month, and I decided yes, I want that fresh food to come in, even if its only that one time.

And to think, I was all worried about getting some tree tapping started, silly me, the weather forcast had it perfect timing to which this week has proven them wrong!

Well, I had another set of twins arrive in the barn this week, that brings my lamb count up to ten this year, with one loss.. they are smaller but then twins tend to be, one is a lovely chocolate and white like its mother and the other is very much a butterscotch color like its grandmomma.

They are snuggling jugged up and won’t be coming out till the weather gets better right now they would be in snow upwards of their little armpits that is just not a good thing for a wee one.

Girls bag is coming along nicely, in the last week she has had a good amount of development in a number of ways and area’s, its quite startling to me at how quickly the changes are coming on, so far she is still excellent in regards to being touched, and handled down there, I am starting her grooming on a more steady way, as I want to make her brushing out and grooming part of her let down milk routine.

My milking sheep has settled into a regular amount, she is at the holding stage, I have figured out that its not a good idea to take fresh milk and make hot chocolate out of it, its very thick and what I call furry on my tongue.. yuck, DH on the other hand loved it! I swear if I had just simmered a bit longer, it would have turned into pudding.

So while the days are getting longer and the urge to start some things to seed is going strong in me, I have to ask, in your neck of the woods is it still winter? It certainly is around here, and today alone we have added in another four inches of snow.

At least at the moment, we have good ground cover always a good thing for many many of my plants..

Tick, Tack and Toe are coming along well, they are getting to the point of giving welcoming chirps and crackles and the other day when a sheep followed me into their barn, i got to hear for the first time the alarm call.. wow! there is no missing it and I had to laugh, these are birds that were raised around sheep, so it was not that they had no idea what that thing was, it was as simple, as in this farm, in this barn, there have been no sheep, so its different and off went the alarm.

They are bright and charming birds, they remind me of my brown leghorns in regards to being flighty or edgy but still smart and interested at the same time.

Fencing questions: Do you fence off your garden to keep deer out of it? If so, what fencing do you use and how high? Also, what would be the best fencing for sheep? Both to keep them in and predators out. Part 2: Goats are notorious escape artists. Are sheep a lot easier to contain?

My garden is currently fenced off on two sides only, one side is backed onto what I call my “small pasture” and the front is fenced off with gates to the main side yard, At some point, I will most likely fence in the back and the other side but its not top of the list to say the least at this point.

I do have alot of deer in my area, but I have never had a single deer that I know of in my garden, I have the hounds to bark, now coons are a bit more of a issue for me, otherwise the farm cats do a very good job keeping pretty much everything else out that is small.

My standard fencing is good qaulity sheep fencing which is 4 feet high and then I have barbwire on three strands, two low and one high on the same fencing as the sheep fence, the sheep fence keeps the sheep in, as well as being small enough at the bottom to work as duck/geese and even chicken if they don’t think to fly over and they rarely do in, I have never seen my pigs challange it but having said that, they are given walk-about’s in the big pastues and their own area is more secure fencing. Having said that, add in the horse and a very strong cow and I will be adding in the ability to turn on a single high hot wire as required.. so my fence is will be triple done..

The sheep fencing won’t keep a determined threat out, I would highly recommend hot lines for that, along with either a) a good barn with good farm dogs including at least one male dog, to walk with you and pee mark the pasture fence lines, and at least something else in the pasture to share and be protective, be it Livestock dogs, donkey’s, personally, I would most likely have gone with a mule if I had a issue, a good mule can be ridden, packed, used as a draft animal and its a amazing field and flock watcher..

Having had both goats and sheep, one of the reason’s I got rid of the goats was how hard they were on the fences, and how much more trouble they were when they got out, sheep are so much easier to keep in, and at least for my own, even if they get out, they don’t go anywhere, they just graze around the fence line or the front ditch lines or they come down and around the fences and end up grazing in my own front yard.

If you HAD to – if the cities around you went kaboom, so you couldn’t easily re-supply, and your husband had no outside work for money – could you make do on the farm? If not, what would you need to change?  (Is that too big of a question?)

Short Answer, just the farm, no, we don’t have enough wood to be able to heat for winter, no, we don’t have enough pasture, hay for everything we have now.

Long Answer, The first thing we would have to do would adjust the levels of the farm critters, we would need to move out the pig, cow and cut down numbers of everything else, I would need the horse,  just for hauling wood, and doing more farm work/plowing, it would depend greatly on if we were able to do barter, in which case having the buggy, and the horse could be a great boon.

I would be left with a horse, sheep, rabbits, and chickens, if I was allowed to barter out to the farms around me, then I would be able to trade for the needed wood, at that point, we would be fairly well off in terms of the rest of things.

I honestly wood needed to make the change to more land if I wanted to stay on the level I am at in regards to animals, having said that , we don’t need this many critters to function for us.

Wood for heating is the very clear weak spot for us at this time… Most everything else would work for make do..

Ok Folks

I reserve the right to not answer if the question is just to personal etc etc

But I thought I would open this up and see what happens.. Ever wanted to ask me a question? Not related to any one post, more just a ” I wonder?”

Now’s your chance.. Ask Away and I will do my best to answer them..

I should be doing some housework, and yard work and planting some seeds and I need to do a little grooming and some nail trimming and I should be working on a list of things to get done today, I should be considering putting together a batch of soap and I should be out doing some ground work with my horse and training with my cow.. I should, I should, I should!!

Instead I am feeling like I need to get this post written out and shared.. you see I was reminded yesterday in many ways but never more so this morning, that as a women, you need to be able to spend time with other women.

I remember laughing a bit about reading how the lady folks would all push to make sure they didn’t miss the wedding or the do, to get together and have that visiting time. There is power in being with your own sex..

I know, I know, in this PC world we live in, we are all equal, and I’m not saying we are not, but I am going to say this.. this morning, have been given the chance to sit across the table from a women I respect and visit, was heart warming.. it filled a need I knew I had growing this week and that exploded this weekend..

In that visit, life happened, children appeared, where hugged, welcomed at the table, included and disappeared back into their own spaces in the house, the men appeared, listened and added value.. but at its very core, it was two women connecting and talking about what had happened, what was happening and dreams of what could be happening in the future.

It was magic.. the magic of sisterhood, of womenhood.. to which I say.. I was and am blessed.. thank you to all the women in my life!! You rock it Girls!!

Love, love it! matched to my gear and bright enough for even fall riding in the woods, Custom Made by Fuzzy Knits in ottawa fitted to me, I just adore it!

I always chuckle when I read in a garden book or magazine when it says, grow a few pots of herbs and some fresh tomato’s a garden is relaxing..

I just don’t garden that way LOL

I demand alot out of my gardens, they don’t need to be pretty like a picture but they had better produce like no tomorrow.. I got thinking about all the things I am have planned, or are working on in gardens this year and wow, I really do want alot out of it..

• Fresh eating food
• Massive amounts of extra food to be canned, dried, stored or frozen for household use
• Critter feed
• Herbs for fresh eating, herbs for drying, herbs/flowers for tea’s
• Medical herbs for house use as well as for critters needs
• Plants for coloring in soaps, or in dyeing for wool, or other materials
• Bedding, green crops, for adding to water to make plant tea’s etc

So do you garden for pleasure or do you garden to put up or do you garden to fill the pantry? Do you are garden to help you in terms of of other hobbies? Do you grow flowers to just see the pretty? or to help the local wildlife? or do most of your plants all have purpose from the tinies to the biggest?