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Pearl, Peony, Ping and Pong

Finally a moment to add photos of our newest farm babies. First is Pearl, our Highland heifer calf. She is getting prettier by the day! On a sunny Sunday, our first lamb of the year was born, Peony. Two weeks after Peony was born, came twin lamb rams, Ping and Pong.

Pearl of a girl!

Peony with her livestock guardian dog (LGD), Fiona

Ping

Pong

Udder Me This, Udder Me That

Unlike some folks, we don't watch to see when our Highland bull Gunner, has bred our Highland cows, when our Shetland ram Stormy has bred our Shetland ewes, or when our Mulefoot boar Henry has bred our Mulefoot sows. Because we aren't producing babies on a production or big Ag type level, the exact moment isn't as important as when we allow them to breed (so that the babies are born during an optimum time for thriving) and what comes from the breeding. Every chart I've seen noting gestation periods have always provide a range of days...nothing is ever an exact date from here to there. Which makes the time of upcoming new babies on the farm like the days leading up to Christmas morning!

Patsy and her new calf!

So how do we know when a cow, ewe or sow is close to giving birth? Super simple and easy to note...udders that begin filling. Because we see our animals every day twice a day, we can watch the changes in the girls' udders and track out from there.

One week ago, we noticed two of our Highland cows' udders were filling up and dropping down a bit. So we have been waiting to see, with anticipation, which girl was going to drop a calf first. Christmas morning came January 29 when I walked out into the field and found a new white calf parked behind a small hill of hay.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Patsy wins the "first calf of 2012" award!

Because she is rangier than the others and very protective like a good mamma cow should be, we've only been able to get a far off photo of her and the calf. So we don't know if it is a bull or heifer calf. If it is a bull calf, we will band him. If a heifer calf, we have a new young Highland/Limosine cross yearling bull that we can put her with.

Patsy has given us two other bull calves over the years since we've had her: Lil' G who is a silver and lives on a friend's farm not far from us and Freddie, who is a blonde like his mom and whom we sold to another friend who was starting a Highland beef herd (he has meat for sale, so contact us for more information).

Highland calves are the cutest things on the face of the planet...and I'll prove it as soon as Patsy brings the baby up to the water trough and I can get some photos.

Happy New Year!

I had to put Happy New Year as my title because it is, after all, the first day of a new year. Living in the city, you get a more tangible sense of that...leaving the past behind, dealing with a hangover from the party(ies) attended the night before, and knowing you'll forget to write the correct year on checks for at least the first 2 weeks of the new year.

Here on the farm, the animals do not celebrate the new year. They do not have a party, they do not watch the ball drop, they do not get drunk, they do not suffer hangovers, they do not "take the day off" as a reward for getting to start over, and they do not write checks. It is, for them, a new day--as is every day! Their celebrations come with the changing of seasons and sometimes the weather. The males are particularly fun to watch when the the females come into estrus (talk about a party!!). When the babies are born, there is a celebration of new life and the babies bounce and play as though they have been around for forever.

We did not sleep in, staving off hangover effects. We got up this morning, just like we do every day, had a cup of coffee and headed out to do our chores. At the warmest part of the afternoon, we'll head down the hill to gather a good load of dried firewood. Later in the afternoon, we'll head back out to feed and water. Early evening before it is completely dark, I'll fuss at the geese for not being inside the coop when the barn yard light goes on and they'll make their waddling way down to the chicken coop. I'll close the door after the geese go inside, turn out the light and say good night to the chickens, geese and ducks. Then it is time to fix dinner and relax.

Some would think there is a general "sameness" to living on a farm. I suppose if you looked at it that way with chores that must be done every day, twice a day, 365 days a year, that description would apply. Yes, the animals must be fed, watered, and hayed each day.

For us, however, there is always variety. The variety comes several perspectives, such as the season or the weather. This morning it was colder than it has been this past week and very windy, which produces a lot of natural wind chiming from the dried leaves on the trees. The sky, a brilliant aquamarine blue playing host to a bright and smiling sun.

So while it is essentially yet another day, for us this has been the prettiest morning of a beautiful day of a fresh new year...and tomorrow will be just as varied, just as surprising, and just as wonderful.

Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year...a very Happy New Month...a very Happy New Day!

Drop That Bucket!

*fairy dust * fairy dust * fairy dust*

See that cute little hog over there? Totally cute, huh?
And that little lamb...can it get any cuter?!
Oh look! That calf is just adorable!  

I just love these little babies! So sweet, so fun, so wonderful to cuddle and squeeze! 

Isn't it cute how they all eat out of the feed bucket?

*slap in the face*

"Hey lady, wake up!"

Yes, that was me, in a dream state...which turns to a waking nightmare a few months down the road. Why?

Because cute and cuddle, adorable and sweet, grow up to be strong and persistent. What is wrong with that? Nothing, unless you have been teaching these babies that what you are carrying in a feed bucket is theirs for the taking. Don't get me wrong; I love interacting with the little ones AND the big ones but NOT with a bucket of feed or treats in hand!

As the little ones get big, there is a major safety issue involved. They get big faster than you think and if you have taught them that food/goodies come from the bucket being held in your hand, you are going to get mobbed. Stronger and bigger can knock you down, trip you, stomp on you, injure you in a bad way. They aren't doing it to be mean or hateful, they are simply going for the goodies as YOU taught them to do.

Mulefoot hogs can go from 4-5 lbs. at birth to over 600 lbs. mature (not corn-fed fat) weight. Granted, our boar and sows are "tamed down", but they are big and incredibly strong. I know my boar adores me (hehehe) but I respect the fact that he IS a boar, with tusks and I am NOT going to be moving him around as I can with the little ones. 

Scottish Highland cattle are generally docile, but you get a bunch of them together going after a small bucket in your smaller hand and it could be a bad injury quick. They use those horns to "communicate" with each other and even with wielding my own "horn" (see the Walking Stick entry), I am going to be overwhelmed in a rush. They out weigh me by many hundreds of pounds.

Our new sheep and Stormy, all rams, are large (Stormy is about 60 lbs., the other guys are 80-130 lbs.) and came to us trained to grab grain from a bucket. When I go into the paddock to feed the hogs, they are almost invariably right there, waiting for me. So I am in the process of retraining them that their goodies will NOT come from a bucket. Stormy thinks anytime I have a bucket in the sheep pen that I have food for him.

Lesson learned: as sweet as they are, as docile as they behave, as pitiful as they may appear while looking up at you with liquid adoring eyes, don't teach them to get goodies from the feed bucket. You'll thank me later.

And now we return to our previously interrupted dream state...

*fairy dust * fairy dust * fairy dust*

Free to Good Home...

I tell myself I won't do another animal that is "free to good home"...and then I get another animal that I got for free. Well, yesterday I got two for free.

We welcome to the farm two rams: a Merino and a Karakul. Rams?! Yes, dude sheep that are still hangin'. A rough mix I've been told and they are likely to battle.  I also have absolutely  no objection to snipping or, if need be, butchering either one of them. There are plenty of rams to go around and just about everything on a farm is expendable if they become a PITA.

These boys are currently pastured with a few of our younger cows and while they are together, we haven't seen too much aggressive behavior. While we don't want anyone to get hurt or injured, they seem to be staying away from each other for the majority of the time. Fortunately, the Merino (Jack) hasn't been responding to the Karakul (Rufus) when he plays the "I have bigger parts" card. He's definitely a "dude" and he is doing what dude animals do when they smell the lovely ladies that live next door. 

On the other side of the fence is all our sheep gals and our Shetland ram Stormy. He and Rufus have been "chatting" through the fence. No damage done to anything, including sheep parts, say Amen! everybody.

Our plan is to have our two larger girls (St. Croix) breed with Jack and Rufus next year. Breeding Petunia and Penelope with Stormy was a success, but we want to get larger lambs for the freezer. I'd rather keep the Shetlands to the Sheltands, with the exception of daughters, naturally.

So we'll see how well everyone does over the next few weeks, getting used to each other and the farm. Keep your fingers crossed!

Egg-zzz-actly!

We have been without eggs for most of the past summer. I've had to either purchase from the store--the most hated option--or beg my very good friend to sell me some of hers. Which she was gracious enough to do..and I'll love her forever for it (Thank You Phyllis!!) My hens, for whatever reason, decided to lay their eggs among the 1,000 lb. hay bales in the barn. I could not get to them, but the raccoons have been having an egg-eating spree. If I were into eating raccoon, I'd probably find a few very fat ones from all the eggs they've eaten in my barn. *grrrrrrrr*

My girls have FINALLY started to lay a bit more consistently over the past week AND in a place I can actually collect them (yes!). I still have a few store-bought "farm" eggs though. Today I had a young U.S. Army SGT, stationed in Afghanistan, complain a bit about the eggs he has received there, telling me that the yolks are "orangey". For starters, this young man has never lived on a farm and has only seen eggs from a store...no harm, no foul, but he need "edumacatin'". haha!

I told him to thank his Afghan egg providers with as much enthusiasm and joy as possible, because he is getting very good eggs...real ones and that is important!

You will note the photo at right. I took this picture this morning after cracking two eggs into a bowl. I wanted to show this young man the HUGE difference between my eggs and a store bought egg. It is hard to see a difference in the "plumpness" factor, but it is there. The color difference is clear and these eggs were also the same size ("large"), yet my egg has a larger yolk.

So what? So this...my farm egg comes from a chicken that gets sunshine all day (unless it is raining...duh), eats a bunch of bugs and grass, drinks good water, breathes good air, and gets to run around doing what chickens do (gossiping about the new rooster...really). My chickens do not: sit all day long in cramped boxes; eat worthless grain and chopped up chicken parts; and crap out eggs that have zero nutrition value. That beautiful rich orangey color means more protein, more Omega 3s, more good fats, and much much much much more taste and texture.

Okay, now the plug for your local farmer's market (please patron!). The next plug...check your city ordinances. Many cities allow you to have chickens in your backyard...hens though, not roosters. Without roosters, you don't get fertilized eggs (some folks like the taste of fertilized eggs) or the potential for hatching out baby chicks (you can buy hatching eggs if you really want that experience).  However, you get eggs and really nice ones if your chickens can "free range" in your yard, scratching through grass and dirt and being able to move around. Chickens are not expensive to buy, house or maintain. Their eggs are delicious and if you have a hen that is a PITA, you can then have chicken and dumplings. Ha ha...okay, I'm not kidding! But that is another story :)

Enjoy your real farm eggs...you are getting one of the best food sources on the planet. Just ask your dog...or your local raccoon.