Just another Day on the Farm

So we are a fairly prepared on the farm for most things within reason, so how is it that no matter how prepared you think you are, on the day, you still find things that you wish you had or need, today we found out that despite having buckets of different nails, sizes, heads, screws etc, we didn’t have sheet metal wide head ones, so when it came time to put a few extra’s into the big barn, we were out, thankfully Dh had driven in today, as we wanted to top up the tank, it was 3/4th full but would raither head into this with a full tank and fresh cans of gas.

So what was the one thing that you figured out today that you didn’t have? or where you able to do all your prepwork without finding a single “darn” moment..  Where is you gas tank at right now.. full, with extra or ??

Here I was all busy today, cooking, cleaning, prepping, doing all the outside chores so that when DH got home, he could do a few extra’s that we wanted to do for “just in case” and somehow I forgot Tooties! Thankfully DH remembered her and asked if we were leaving her in her pen with her blue barrel shelter, and while I did her chores today,I just didn’t think of the wind/storm, so needless to say, we bribed her with food into a large crate and moved her into the extra shelter in the barn for safety, if the wind had damaged her pen, she could have got out and could have gotten lost in the storm.

I am so grateful that Dh will be working from home tomorrow, as I have no issues with him putting in the time but I am happy to have him home, instead of the commute to work and back! I also was proactive and changed a health appointment, and moved it from tomorrow to a later day, because it makes no sense to have DH home an then put me on the road on what is to be the worst day.

We have had power flicker on and off a couple times now, so I have turned off things, unplugged everything that can be, double checked the surge protectors, and plan on kicking my Dh’s rear in a good game of Zombies later this evening 🙂

So are you ready for this? If and when the storm has made it your way, and you have your power on or can find time over the next couple days, pop in and let me know that you made it though the storms, please an thanks.

If this works out well, and I end up doing larger amounts then I will break it down and most likely work out a page for it, but for now, this is proving to involve some work and I thought I would share the process with you..

So I wanted to pre-soak or pre-sprout the seeds before traying them, this is super simple, measure out the amount of pds you want, a quart jar is pretty much a pd of seed, and dump into a clean (I gave it a little pre-soak/switch of bleach water in a five gallon bucket) as it is said to help with possable mold issues, and then I filled up to twice the level of the grains and left it for a while I went and did some chores, then I poured off the top half the water/chaf/bits etc and refilled it with fresh water till the bucket was 3/4th full and moved it into a warm corner of the house, that night, I drained it and filled again with fresh water, letting it soak for a total of around a day, then drained for an hour or so, and into the trays.

Now most folks are going out and buying the thick black pastic seed trays and I think thats a great idea but they need to be the heavy duty ones and I just happened to have a idea on these, you see I am going to need to sprout these in my cellar, for a couple reason, cement floor, easy place to set up the stands to hold the trays, even warmth, not hot or cold, access to water and one of the few places that with no critter access.

Do you remember when I got that huge pile of wire trays at that amazing sale this spring, those heavy duty trays are just begging to made into sprouting tray’s, just some heavy duty garden pastic with holes for drainage added and bing, bang boom, awesome reusable and darn near none breakable sprouting trays, because the shelves also have draining, I can water the top trays and have it drip/filter down to the bottom trays, I will add them to the daily chores and hopefully I won’t have to move to a pump system but will if I need to.

Each tray at the correct level of grains holds 2 pds of grains, which should ideally end up being a “bisquit”- why do they call it this? of 12 to 16 pds of fresh fodder

So we will see if it works as I hope.. now to figure out the amounts for each day.. so Miss Piggy measures out at around four hundred pds, that means she needs 1 percent of her body weight in fodder but she is milking so that raises it to 2% so eight pds per day, and the wee ones are currently 10 pds this week, again because they are growing, they are listed at the 2% rate, so .2 percent of a pd per piglet, that would mean 1 pd per five piglets, and I think I would like to aim for .3% and will need to continue to raise it per week as they grow..

So that means for them I need 10 to 11 pds per day of green sprouts, so that means if I get a proper sprout rate, 2 pds of barley per day..

Brandy in some ways is easier to figure out as she is not expecting, growing or milking.. Because I don’t want to short her, she came in at around 1300 to 1350, and so for the sake of feeding her, I am going to move her to a flat 1400 pds..  so she needs 14 pds of fodder per day, so 2.4 pds of starting barley, or basicly one properly done tray..

Girl is measuring in at 1200 pds but she is expecting and then will be milking so she needs twices as much..  will end up with two stands five high, two trays on each level if this works out well..

Worried about the storm, getting the farm and all the critters lined up and our ducks in a row as they say..

Typically the animal I would worry about the least would be our farm cats, we have a huge barn with cat enter and exit area’s, we have a cat door into our smaller barn as well, and we tend to farm sale shop or curb shop at least once a year for older but comfy chairs, couches or futon mattress’s that are put out in the buildings for the cats to sleep on, then come spring clean up time, we throw them out and get them a new one.. (mainly because they mark them and use them as a scratch post.

I also shop at a place that lets you take your stuff in box’s and I pick up a number of them in the late summer/fall, tape them shut on the top and bottom god bless duct tape, cut cat doors and stuff them with fresh clean straw, we have a infar heater that when it gets cold that we hang over top the big couch or chair, but not all the cats like to sleep together, and so I also make winter “nest” box’s, given how happy and excited they are to see them, they must like them, and they tucked away in different sheltered spots to give the “shadow -Read Stray or drop off cats” that have found a home on the farm over the years..

I have as big of a heated outdoor dog water dish as I can buy that I keep full of water for the winter cats to drink but its a regular sight to see a few of them hanging around and waiting while I put out fresh water for the livestock and to see them balanced on the edge having a drink of the warm water. They also have huge free feeders that you just need to fill up once or twice a week that allows them all to come and go at will..

Now that’s just the outside cats, the house cats are both indoor and outdoor cats, but come winter, they are alot more indoor then out.. having said that, the worst thing about having farm cats is when one goes missing.

She is called PurrPatches, cuz she is a sweetheart that loves to purr and kneed on you, and patches cause she is a pretty Black Calico with big old orange patches and a white bib and feet.. she likes her deck time but never had gone far before, but she has been MIA since saturday..  Now if it was one of my outdoor “shadow” cats I would not be worried in the least to be honest, but she is a come in the house to sleep every night cat, and we have been over the house, the barns, the yards, and even walked the road up and down looking for her.. its fall, the cover is not that good anymore, and nothing..

So send a prayer out for her if you are willing and do prayers.. we would very much like her to come home safely to us if she could, please and thanks.

So my wee little turtle seemed to be doing fine, I now have three very good turtle books, and have what a I believe to be a good set up for her tank, resting area’s and I have started giving her safe walks a couple times a week, she is active, bright, swimming well and looks great sunbathing on her floating pad..

Only one big issue, I have not yet been able to see her eat.. I am still picking and offering fresh greens from the yard, including ones I knew she liked in her tank, I have offered her little bits of fruit, I have offered her three different turtle foods, some for young ones, some for regular and some freeze dried, and today I offered her a fresh worm..

Now she has to be eating, or I just don’t think that she would be this healthy looking, bright clean eyes, healthy skin, she truly looks wonderful but its driving me just a touch crazy that I have no “seen” her eat since she came in the house, I have tried the move her into her feeding pan, put the food, leave for an hour.. I have seen nothing, so I do finally give in and put different plant/food in her tank, between me cleaning it, and a very good filter system, the water looks great.

I can honestly say at this point, a) I am thinking about getting some feeder fish that the books recommend for her tank b) I will be jumping for joy, when if finally happens..

So if anyone brought or has or had turtles, did you see them eat or not?

Well first a update on Beaker-that little guy is just rock’n it back with his momma, he is growing, nursing, eating and is all full of himself.. sometimes you get really luck and if you can catch something early, it works out so much better then waiting to just see if it will work out on its own..

Well, you have heard me talking about the rising costs of grain and the fact that my piglets were born to a point in the wrong season (not knocking it, it was a wonderful joy to see them) but from a fresh food stand point, not so great..

So we are going to take something I have done on a small scale for the birds and for milking critters and take it to a much larger scale, I am going to be ramping up on sprouting fodder for the winter use.

I am planning on mainly using Barley but with a light mix of black Sunflower seeds, and wheat, along with a smaller amount of dried hay.. now you are most likely thinking, is it really worth the work..

To which I  say, ask me in a month LOL..

I just think the idea of taking one pd of seed and turning it into between six to 11 pds of fodder (the amount of grow back really seems to depend on who you read) but on average for my own trials before, it was around 8 pds of fodder to 1 pd of barley, any way you cut it that is a huge difference.. this has been tried before with success for large blacks pigs

And the health punch is not to be overlooked, this will allow me to finish off my piglets without corn, and allow them to be raised on what would be very much like having fresh summer time feeding on pasture and greens, perhaps not as close as I would like but I have dried nettles, burdock leaves, horseradish and I have a good amount of seeds from different things I have collected in the garden, radish, as well as dried Plantian seeds stems etc.

So what do you think, if you could not have pasture raised pork, how would you as a small farm/local meat buyer feel about buying winter pork that was raised on mainly fresh sprouted fodder..

I’m going to do it either way as that is what I want for my own pork, but I am interesting in here feed back on how buyers would feel about this, given that a number of my regular readers are in fact those typical buyers in their own local areas, I figure you are the perfect folks to ask..

Well, between the farm helpers and Dh and myself, many hours was spent emptying out the old brown shed, ripping out the shelves, the floor and the subfloor, cleaning the area around it..

It down to the bare bones and will be rebuilt from the ground up into a locking tack/harness, gear storage shed, I am still playing around with layout idea’s for it but the basic’s at the moment are a three shelf system at the back, two saddle tree’s on the right with hanging gear above them and harness across on the left with crates or work box’s under it..

I am quite excited about it to tell the truth and it will open up a nice space in other area to be used at some point, I didn’t think to get a proper before picture but I do have a finished emptied/gutted photo and will go from there..

Well, this morning I have great news, first is that Beaker is feeling so much better today, and will be heading back out to the barn, he got warmer up, well feed and finally today, he passed a normal stool!  He is alert and active and if I could move his great by myself I would take him down myself but I will wait till Dh gets home and get him, that way Miss Piggy won’t lose her milk and he will get back to being a growing healthy baby..

I was right, it was a small clumb of woodchips that had caused a blockage.. and with that passed he is straight backed, even sided and ready to join the pack again..

However, lets get the rest of the story, I feed him at five this morning, and again at 9 and then I headed out to go help with the ferrier at farm T’s and didn’t get back to my own farm till well after 11 and I popped into the house and Ah!!! someone had wiggled his side crate door open and I was greeted at the door by a happy to see me pack of hounds and a piglet. Opps..

Thankfully my farm hounds are awesome, not a mark on the little guy or on them, everyone seemed to have made friends while I was out and then were bonding.. but I had to catch him, and boy did the pups get worried when he cried.. my wonderful Black Goddress even whined in worry and then checked him over with her nose to make sure I had not hurt him..

Thankfully everything ended well, but what a start it was to see him come running with the rest of the hounds to the door to greet me LOL

I had promised myself that I would go riding for my 40th birthday, I had booked a afternoon ride for this coming weekend this spring at a place in Quebec, it never crossed my mind that I would be able to just walk out, call my horse, tack her up and go for a ride in my own pasture ON my birthday..

Thank you to everyone that helped make this dream come true but a extra hug goes to DH for his love and support in this!

A super cute short video of him singing me Happy Birthday in the pasture..

http://youtu.be/f1vLdTZqLqE