Weekend Reading

Ah Hah!  I found one.  A novel I could read right through.  I have attention-deficit when it comes to novels, you see.  They can't seem to hold me very long.  But something the way Jeannette Walls writes really pulls me in.  I've read her memoir, "The Glass Castle" and her other novel "Half Broke Horses", and now this, her third "The Silver Star".  She says it's a novel, fiction, but I'm sure there are pieces of her crazy childhood all over this book.  Especially in the mother character.

I said it before after reading one of Walls' books:  If you think your life is spinning out of control, just try to imagine what life was like for her growing up.  Your life?  It ain't so bad.  Cozy up this weekend with a good read and really enjoy that extra hour tomorrow.

Welcome Back Apollo!

Heeee's baaaaaack!  And he's bigger -- much bigger!
After several lengthy family discussions, the conclusion was reached that although shipping the lambs off in the fall is very sad, the joy we get from seeing them born and having them bopping over the pasture all summer far outweighs the sadness at the end of it all.  Daughter thinks it will get easier, as it did with the extra roosters and turkeys that ulitmately end up in our freezer.  I guess we'll see about that. 

I realized today why so many books are written on farm stories.  Because so many ridiculous things happen on farms.  Like today.  Hubby and I went over to a neighbor farm to pick up our stud-Ram this morning.  Same Dude as last year.  And yes, that's Dude with a Capital D.

Well.  My neighbor shepherds have a lot more sheep than we do and do things a little different than we do.  They don't have time to pussy-foot around.  Ahem.  We do.  So, instead of their suggestion of tying him up and dragging him into a cage on the back of their well-equipped pick up, we gently loaded him into the back of our mini van, furnished with soft hay and willow branches to munch on.  We were warned it wasn't a good idea.  He was going to vault over the seats and create such havoc that we'd probably have an accident on the way home... so they said.

Not so.  My dear hubby sat in the back of the van with him (ok, kind of "on" him) and talked nice to him and when he started to get a little jumpy, stroked his ears as I directed.  Mr. Man lay back down and totally relaxed. 

I think he remembered us.  I've read that sheep can remember people for up to two years.  We were nice to him last time and he knew that.  So he settled in for the short ride and seemed genuinely happy when he realized where he was going (thankfully, a short ride down the road).

And?  He got right down to business as soon as he was re-introduced to the girls.  We'll be seeing lambs in March.

Goodness.  

Good-bye Kiki

Our little farm has one less this week. 

Kiki was a tiny mille fleur d'uccle that hatched from some eggs given to my dear chicken-lovin daughter this summer.  This very observant child of mine noticed right away that something was up with the itty-bitty bird's beak.  Kiki, as she came to be called, was born with cross-beak, a genetic deformity with no cure. This sweet little thing would trill when you talked to her, like she was just tickled to be having a chat with you... she would happily scamper after the kids, and put up with the costumes the children made for her.

Sigh.

Some survive, some... don't.  We did all we could for the tiny, fiesty creature.  We made sure she could eat, undisturbed, with a deep dish that she could get her whole face into.  With a cross-beak, a bird can't peck or preen the way "normal" birds can, so they need special attention.  Unfortunately, with a severe case (like Kiki), try as they (and we) might, they just can't get enough food to sustain them. 

Kiki passed away quietly, early Saturday morning.  We will miss her vibrant spirit.  It gives us peace to know that, somewhere, she is finally eating her fill.

Sheep Dreams ...

I have sheep.  But they may soon be but a dream.

Sigh.

We bought our 4 little lambs a couple of years ago with the idea of breeding them -- for meat lambs, as they are hair sheep.  We raised them and then decided not to breed them that first year as our very sensitive (especially in the animal department) daughter couldn't bear the thought of sweet lambs going off to be "murdered".

So that opened up the discussion that we aren't keeping the sheep for pets, and if they aren't going to "earn their keep" by providing us with lambs that we in turn sell for other people's dinners, then we can't keep them.  Daughter decided that she can handle it if we don't get to know the lambs and whomever buys them (and then eats them) does not EVER speak of it to her.  Okay .... 

We bred the (now) ewes last October; they all gave birth to beautiful healthy lambs in March.  And yesterday, the last of them went off to the slaughterhouse.  Dear, sweet daughter was beside herself with the emotional pain of saying goodbye to these lambs we raised over the past 7 months.  We did end up keeping one lamb, Stella's little white girl, who has just the gentlest personality that she had to be spared.

It's again breeding time for the ewes.  But now, after witnessing our girl's reaction to the reality of raising lambs for the table, we need to revisit the conversation: how do we do this, and honor our child's feelings at the same time?  Is this something we need to harden her to, to force her to accept that this is what we do if we want to keep so many animals?  She doesn't have to come to the abattoir.  She doesn't see the carnage. She only has the images in her head. Granted, they are powerful images.

 Or do we abandon ship, truly honoring her feelings, and sell our little flock?

Selfishly, I say, but, what about MY feelings?  I feel like I have finally found something that matters to me.  Providing quality meat to my friends; raising the lambs as healthily and ethically as possible.  A very wise person once said, to change the world, you first must change yourself.  I want my food raised ethically.  So that's what I'm doing.  But I may not be supported in what I believe and enjoy, and may have to give it up.  And that makes me so sad.

Weekend Reading

"Farm City - The Education of an Urban Farmer" by Novella Capenter was EXACTLY what I needed to read.

If you've been reading this space for a while, you may have noticed that I have taken a significant break from posting my once-traditional Friday "Weekend Reading" posts.  I love to read.  I try  to read novels.  Sometimes I succeed. Mostly I don't.  Well-meaning friends pass along these "wonderful" books for me to read, and I start them, and enjoy them for a chapter or 3, then I put them down ... and down they stay.  Unless it's a novel I can learn something from.  I don't mean history or geography.  I like geography.  History is a bit meh for me as I prefer to live in the present and not-so-distant-future.

So this book was so perfect for me. Right now.  Basically, this apartment-dweller decides to squat on some land next to her rented space and first construct a garden, very quickly adding poultry that will eventually be consumed.  (Unfortunately, not all are consumed by the author.  I'll spare you the details - you'll just have to read it.)  Then she decides to raise a couple of hogs and this, for me, is where it got interesting.  

I was reading this book when I was knee-deep in the middle of raising our 2 pigs, by very similar methods as the author.  I laughed at her follies (which were not so different from my own) and gave a nod to her observations and comments about raising her pigs in the manner she chose.  Finally!  I felt like there was someone out there doing what I was doing.

Now, I'm sure there are LOTS of people doing what I'm doing.  I just don't know any of them, and they definitely don't run in my social circles.  Most unfortunate, this, as my frustrations and exhausted ramblings about the amount of food pigs can consume, and how much decent food people will throw into the garbage mostly fell on sympathetic ears who really had no idea how commited we were to raising our pigs.

If you choose to read "Farm City", I'm sure you'll enjoy it, even if you never raise hogs or know anyone who does.  It's an eye-opener, let me tell ya.

Harvesting, Defined

To Harvest (v): To glean or collect or gather, usually pertaining to fruits, vegetables, grains.

We were told late last year of an abandoned apple orchard in our neighborhood, so this year we decided to harvest some apples for ourselves.  The children thoroughly enjoyed running in the overgrown space, admiring the trees with shoots sticking out every-which-way, with kid-sized apples at their height.

And they happen to be MacIntoshes, my personal favourite.

We gathered a full bag or 2, some to eat, some to process into applesauce, and some to give to some very generous friends ...

Hmmm.  Process.  Applesauce.  Two words that bring me to the second part of this post.

Applesauce goes very well with pork.  If you remember, we raised two pigs this summer.  (I certainly will not forget anytime soon, if EVER.).  The friends who recieved our gift of apples gave us a generous gift as well -- their time and knowledge and skills -- to process our pigs.

It strikes me the various words we use to describe this: Harvest. Process.  Dispatch. Slaughter. Kill.

Really.  It's murder.  There was nothing wrong with the pigs -- they were perfectly healthy -- perfectly happy.  And we ended their lives so we could eat healthy meat.  Although this is why we raised them, and we fed them as well as we were set up to do, kept them healthy, comfortable -- it still does not make me rest easy that we ultimately murdered these animals.  Granted, they are by far  my least favourite critter I have EVER raised, I still do not take their death lightly.  It was over so quickly, so cleanly, so humanely, however, I'm not sure we will ever do this again. I was witness to the entire process.  I felt that I owed them that much. They deserved respect, in life and in death, whether I enjoyed their piggishness or not.

Thank you to our friends.  And Thanks to the pigs.

And that was Summer

Really.  September already.  I feel like this, the Summer of 2013, has gone by in a blur.   Gorgeous weather for sure, and lots to do... So Much to Do.  Too Much.

My poor garden is so overgrown and crazy-wild, I'm slightly embarrassed by it.  I've totally neglected it for most -- if not all -- summer.  Other than watering it on occassion.  If it weren't for all the volunteer plants this year, I'm not sure I'd have much in there to speak of.  Half the potato plants and ALL the tomatoes grew all by themselves, with no help from me.  The chard and New Zealand spinach are out of control.  My lettuces are bolting all over the place.  Thankfully, some things like the carrots and beets don't really care if I pay any attention to them.  They are almost happier if I don't.  I did manage to harvest the garlic at the end of July, but it's still sitting, drying, with old dirt caking the huge bulbs waiting for a good scrubbing and to be put in the basement.

Thankfully the fruit trees don't need much attention.

Really, the only saving grace of it all is that nothing is really going to go to waste.  Sure, I'm not going to be harvesting or preserving as much for us as I would like, but the pigs and chickens will get several good feasts from everything I pull out of there.

So why did everything get so crazy??  I have 2 answers for that: pigs and unexpected chickens.  The pigs we have managed to feed almost for free if you don't count the time and money spent on gas gathering everything for them: greens and other produce from a local grocery store (a lot of it organic), expired bread and milk from a bakery and another grocery store.  Then we cook almost all their food, other than soft fruits and melon-y things.  Three HUGE meals a day.   They are getting big, but not fat, so I think it's a good thing.  The proof, I guess, will be in the... um... "pudding" ... so to speak.

And the chickens?  Yikes.  I was so proud of myself, having planned the 2 hatches of buff orpingtons, marans, and ameraucanas so precisely so as to have the hens laying by September at the latest.  And then came the gift of Salmon Faverolles and Mille Fleur D'uccles.  Two breeds I personally DID NOT plan on having this year -- or any time in the near future for that matter.  But, they were a gift for my bird-loving daughter from a very generous lady.  They hatched in mid-July and won't lay anything till at least January.  I did sell a couple Mille Fleurs and 6 Faverolles, but still.  I'm STILL raising chicks.  And one of the little "millies" has a severe cross-beak, so requires extra attention.  I can pass a lot of that extra care on to the Daughter, since they were given to her.  And the Fav's -- we ended up with 3 pullets and 1cockerel so that's nice, if we choose to breed them.  At this point, I would just like to concentrate on the marans and ameraucanas.  

Sigh.  Lots to do still.

I'm taking notes already for next year, mostly of what NOT to do.  Like no hatching birds after May, for starters.

Chicken Spa Day

Daughter has wanted to give a chicken a bath for AGES, and this time she had a really good excuse:

LICE.

Gross, right?

Not sure how it got into my coop, but there it was, plain as day, clusters of eggs or "nits" glued to the base of the feather shafts on most of my birds.  And then noticing the little ugly things scurrying all over the back-ends of the birds.   Ugh.  I think probably, when our "Old Lady" bird was slowing down and spending most of her days resting in the coop, she came in contact with something that carries it (not sure what, could be any little birdie thing) and the lice had a party on her as her health was deteriorating and we all know how parasites love the sick.

Of course, then it quickly spreads and before we know it, we have a full-out issue.

OK, so first we get a little mad and disappointed that we are not as good chicken farmers as we thought, and then we get down to business.

We soaked them first in a sea salt and pennyroyal oil bath.

Then again in the bubbles:

This drowns most of the lice and provides instant relief from the biting and itchy the little buggers cause.  And it's quite amazing how much the chickens relax and enjoy the bath!  They just sink down into it.  We had to hold them up to make sure their heads stayed above the water!

Then, a blow dry, and let them loose down in the yard to primp and preen and put all their feathers back in order.

Lady Eggadaya (an Easter Egger hatched on our property last year) thoroughly enjoyed her bath. She was the first to have a spa treatment as she was the first to let us know of the problem in the first place.  She jumped up on my lap while I was sitting in the chicken yard and squawked at me as if to say - "HEY.  I'm itchy.  DO SOMETHING about it!"

I'm sure Lady Eggadaya said "Thank You" when we were done.  

Further treatment included 3 treatments of DE dusting, 7 days apart, with more DE sprinkled in their favourite nests and dust-bath areas.

Today was the 3rd (and hopefully final) DE dusting, and checking everyone over, they all look great!  Yay!

Putting By

I love that phrase: "Putting by."  I love doing it.  I try to time it for a cooler morning, as standing over a hot stove in the middle of a heat wave makes me grumpy.  (I'd rather be at the beach, knitting, and watching children splash in the waves.)  We had a day like that this week.  So now we have some more jam (apricot and blueberry) put by for the cooler weather to come.   My jam is pretty basic.  I sometimes like to jazz it up, but with kids it's best not to risk it sometimes.  (They can be Picky!)  I think the jam is more versatile if it's more basic anyway.  Really taste the flavor of the fruit and nothing else.  Really, nothing else, as I don't add sugar -- I use the Bernardin pectin that just uses apple juice and NO SUGAR.

Can't wait for the blackberries to really start going crazy!  Nothing better than home-made jam in the middle of a snow storm.

Yummmm...

Overwhelmed

I am sure, at this time of the year, a lot of people are saying that.  Especially those with large-ish gardens and more than your run of the mill 1 dog household.

New Salmon Faverolle and Mille Fleur D'uccle chicks!

We live in the beautiful, sunny, HOT Okanagan Valley, and as such, as a community, makes for a swell of visitors in the summertime.  Not just us -- "everybody" it seems is hosting friends or family (or both), and taking little stay-cations (as opposed to VaCations) of their own which makes for A Lot of traffic.

So with our large-ish garden, many (too many) animals, visitors and the heat, I'm feeling Totally Overwhelmed.  Thank goodness our visitors are the kind that pitch in and offer a helping hand, an ear,  or a hug (sometimes all 3) when needed.  Not to mention a story or a cuddle for the kids as well.

But really.  It's all coming down to the pigs.

Seriously.  I had no idea these two creatures would up the ante so much on our daily routines!  They are pretty much the opposite to all the other critters on our little homestead:
-The pigs are penned, and thus totally dependant on us for their food (since they completely leveled their yard in less than 2 weeks flat).  The other animals run about, taking over the entire place, hunting, pecking, scratching, foraging and basically taking care of themselves, other than food in the evening before bed, and water.
- They are NOT child-friendly.  One tasted my leg the other day!!  All other critters are friendly or they are given away or processed and put into the freezer.  The kids are not - under any circumstances - allowed in the pigs' pen.
- Although we are doing a VERY good job of collecting free food for the pigs (not putting a price on our time or the gas it takes to get from place to place), these animals need an amazing amount of food, grow amazingly fast, and need to be fed three times a day.

And?

They are starting to smell.

I don't know if they will see September as originally planned.

And I didn't even mention the raspberries, peas, turkey babies and more eggs, ducks, new chicks, all the chickens at various stages of growth....

The Ultimate Babysitter

Waldo or "Wally" is the best turkey daddy ever.

He is protective without being overbearing, gentle without being a push-over.

He accepts everyone without question and patiently stands guard over everyone, alerting them to any potential danger, be it real or imagined.

We added a couple of Blue Slate cross poults to our turkey family a few weeks ago, with the idea of growing a hen or 2 into being breeder mamas for next year.  Their offspring, because they will be really mixed up crosses, will hopefully be larger than the Royal Palms, and will be market turkeys for Christmas 2014.

Wally watches over these three "adopted" babies as if they were his own.

What an awesome dad he is :)

Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs

Dear chicken-crazy daughter got a surprise the other day: EGGS!

A couple of months ago, I sold some turkey eggs to a lovely lady from Lytton who got to chatting with my girl and discovered they have a mutual admiration for Salmon Faverolles.  "Tricia" promised to bring my girl some eggs next time she was through town.  Well.  I don't like it when adults promise kids things, as most adults do not respect the power of the promise to a child.

But this special lady does :)

She arrived with no less than 12 Salmon Faverolle eggs AND 6 Mille Fleur D'uccle eggs for us to hatch!!  Whoa Nellie!  Talk about sweet gifts!

Salmon Fav's are big and beautiful and gentle, and winter well.  Mille Fleur D'uccles are lovely hens... the jury is out on the roosters (I haven't heard good things).  So all these eggs went into the trusty incubator (I told you it was getting a work-out!  Add to those eggs, the couple of Easter Egger eggs from here, and we'll see what we get in a couple of weeks.  Needless to say, we'll be selling most of the chicks as we are bursting as I've mentioned.  And I thought I was done with chicks for this year!

Mrs. Broody-Pants

AGAIN, this was NOT the plan.  I like my plans.  But This One was not part of ANY plan for this summer, anyway.

We have this sweet, two-year old blue Ameraucana hen, whom we've had since she was a chick and she has never before wanted to be a mom.

"Misty" AKA "Mrs Broody-Pants" before motherhood

Until now.  We tried several times to discourage her, taking her eggs away, moving her, locking her completely away from where she thought would be a good place to brood.  No such luck.  We finally decided that we'd give her a chance to see what she could do.  We let her have 4 brown eggs (not her eggs, as the only active rooster we have right now is either her nephew or her son).  One of her coop mates decided to lay her eggs right beside her about a week after she starting setting, so Mrs Broody-Pants adopted these eggs too!  Problem is, I think, obvious.  The other 2 eggs would hatch 10 days after the first 4. 

This is where having an incubator comes in handy.  So, seeing how today is day 18 for the first 4 eggs, we candled all the eggs, figured out which ones would be the ones to hatch on Tuesday, and put the rest in the incubator to hatch with the Salmon Faverolle eggs and Mille Fleur D'uccle eggs already in there.  Oh, what? I haven't mentioned those?  They were a gift for my 4H daughter.  We couldn't really say "no", could we?  Even though I feel like we are totally bursting at the seams of our little place here.  Oh well.  We'll just have to get picky and sell some birds.  Or build another coop.  Ahem.

My New Favorite Thing

Wanna get totally blissed out for a couple of minutes in the middle of a crazy day??  
I have 1 word for you: Affogato.  It is, quite literally, a scoop of vanilla gelato drowning in a shot of espresso. 

We slide out to our favourite Italian deli a couple of times a week and have one of these little numbers.  And seriously, I can tune out just about anything when I'm sipping one of these babies.  You get this with wine, you say?  Well.  I self-diagnosed gout about a year ago so have barely touched a lick of alcohol since. No wine for me.  Especially no beer.  Thank the powers that be I can still drink coffee!!!  And it's not just about the drinking of it, either.  I can and do (often) go to the deli and order one, but I can just as easily make one at home.

Measuring the coffee into the stove-top espresso maker.  Scooping the still-hard gelato (too soft and it is just in a puddle in your cup).  Pouring -- slowly -- the steaming hot espresso over the gelato and watching the merger.  Taking that first sip.  

Ahhhhh.

And Then.  

A sigh of pure relaxed joy, knowing ... 

I can have two.

Oink.

I truly don't know what I've gotten myself into this time.

We've talked about expanding in this way before, but then, it just kinda happened.

Pigs.

The extent of my knowledge on pigs comes from Wilbur in Charlotte's Web and Babe in the movie of the same name.  The pigs (there are 2!) are about the same size as Babe looks in the movie, and they are only 9 weeks old.  Apparently, they are a Berkshire cross, but they are pink, not black as one might expect a Berkshire to be.  They are about 50 lbs now, but will get bigger.  Much. Bigger.

So, what is a person to do?  Well, first off, we all agreed that if we were getting these animals, it was to be a family project, not just a mama project, no thank you.  I've enough to do with the lambs, ducklings, geese, turkeys with babies, and chickens around here already.  We are raising them for meat, as my family really seems to enjoy eating pork and the way that commercially-raised pigs are kept is beyond horrific.  For these sensitive, intelligent animals to be kept in filth and fed garbage (literally), is inexcusable.  When really, honestly, their taste buds seem very discernible.  Believe it or not.

Then, I consulted my "bible" or my first go-to book when any farm-type question is raised.  Then, I go to our library site and reserve, "Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs" as I find the Storey's guides the most informative and comprehensive farm-animal handbooks around.  Then, we just observe.  Watch what they eat, when they like to eat and how much (a lot!),  the noises they make when they're happy, and when they're not.  Wow.  What a learning curve this one is; bigger than most I think.  Relative to the critter in question I suppose.

We've learned a couple of things already: They like their backs scratched.  It only took 1 night to train them to go to bed in their "house".  (The coyotes that were howling right outside their pen the night before might have helped to convince them it was a good idea.) They would rather not eat anything rotten, thank you.  They LOVE grass.  They do not defecate or urinate near where they eat or sleep, if they can help it.  They are AMAZING rototillers!

They are in a pen at the far back of the property, in our old dog run which we had reinforced with cement when the dogs were younger as they were diggers and escape artists.   So far, it's working for the pigs.  We are feeding them as organically as possible, gathering gleaning from local (small) grocery stores mostly, plus some "pig pellets" which is really just insurance that they are getting all they need. (Incidentally, it seems near impossible to find organic pig food, so if anyone has a lead on some, I"d love to hear it.  Who knows what goes into these manufacturer pellets that pigs are expected to eat every day of their lives.  Gross.)  Ideally, we would be raising them on pasture, and might still do, but we've been warned about pigs and how they can eat chickens that get in their way, and that they bite, and they escape from anything.  You know.  The kind of horror stories new pig farmers want to hear.  Not.  So we'll see how we go once we've gotten used to them, and them to us.

There will be more on this later.

Oh ya.  Bet on it.

Incubator Work Out

As promised: Ducklings!!

Bath time:

These 4 little fuzz balls have got to be the cutest things I've seen of late! 

Ya, and going back to that thing I wasn't supposed to do -- incubating waterfowl with turkeys.  Well.  Um. OK, so not only did I mix water and land, I also had the eggs due to hatch on different days, like a week apart, so I stopped turning the turkey eggs while the ducks were hatching.  Not supposed to do that.

Are you waiting for bad news?

There isn't any :)

Eight turkey eggs went into lock down, after resuming the turning schedule after the ducks hatched (I also did a quick clean out of the incubator after the ducklings were in the brooder so the turkeys would have a clean start)...

and...

8 hatched: fine and fluffy and healthy as anything.

Whew!

Chicken Garden 2013

The one and only, "Beep"

Lettuce in the chicken garden

Mixed spicy Asian greens in the Chicken Garden

New black silkies!

I like to spoil my chickens.  They deserve it.  They give us a bounty of beautiful, healthful eggs almost all year-round, they clean up the insects and kitchen scraps, add nitrogen to the compost pile and are a joy to watch.  And so, Chicken Garden 2013 begins.  I've netted the same area that I used for the chicken garden last year.  This year, I'm taking more precautions as I actually want to grow some stuff in there for the people too, like corn and pumpkins (lots of pumpkins!) and different squashes.  The chickens can have a variety of different lettuces, peas, beans and sunflowers.  Plus the millet and oats that we planted in there last year has re-seeded itself so there's that too.  I've roped off part of their main pen as well and planted more corn, millet, oats and sunflowers in there.  Hopefully I can keep the sneaky devils out of there until it comes up enough that they won't devastate it in a matter of minutes.

There's quite a few of our feathered friends down there now -- the main flock of 13 (including Bowie the Rooster and our one last "Old Lady" Sex-sal-Link hen who hasn't laid in YEARS)-- Daughter's 5 Buff Orphingtons, the 9 mixed Orphingtons, and the new trio of black silkies.  Of these, we'll be keeping almost all the hens, and Daughter can choose one Buff Rooster to be her breeder-man for next spring.  Of my Birthday Presents of marans and wheaton ameraucanas, we'll keep one blue marans rooster ("Elvis") and the wheaton ameraucana roo ("Sting").  Of the rest of the boys, I may try to sell a couple, as marans are not always easy to come by, or, failing that, apparently they dress out nicely for the table as well.  It looks like, of the 6 ameraucana eggs I purchased, only 2 hatched, but I may have gotten my ultimate wish -- 1 hen and 1 rooster.  I've learned my lesson about counting my hens before they lay, so  the one I believe to be an ameraucana hen we've dubbed "Happy" -- because that's what I'll be if it does turn out to be a hen :)

Happy and Sting

So Much to Say ...

So Few Pictures!

Like, none :(

Things are rolling right along on our little slice of land, I just haven't had time.  There's couple photos I have taken, and will share as soon as I can get them downloaded, but for now, you'll just have to be patient and enjoy the mental images.

The lambs are getting SO big!  It's getting hard to tell who are the mama ewes and who are the babies.  I'm letting the mamas wean the babies gradually, instead of seperating them as most shepherds do after about the 2 month-mark.  For a couple of reasons.  I think my sheep are happier all together and I'd rather not shock the mamas into mastitus or something of the sort. Plus, I really don't have a lot of extra space to seperate them completely, far enough away from each other, and provide adequate housing so that they are safe from predators at night.  So, I'm going with the gradual wean.  And it's interesting to watch.  Being a long-term breast-feeder of both my babes (we're talking over 5 years and almost 5 years, respectively), it's just easier on the moms and babes, physically and emotionally.  And I'm noticing that the mama ewes are letting the lambs nurse less and less, and for much shorter periods (like, seconds!). So ya, right or wrong, that's what I'm doing and it seems to be working for my girls.

The ducklings hatched last week -- I started with 4 eggs in the incubator, and got four ducklings!  I had to help the last 2 out.  I think they might have gotten a little shrink-wrapped when I opened the incubator to nab the first two.  You're not supposed to do that either - open the incubator when there are critters hatching -- but ducks are messy and I didn't want them pooping on the other duck eggs or disturbing the turkey eggs that still had a week to go.  Ya Ya, I know, you're not supposed to do That Either -- put land poultry in with waterfowl, but hey, I'm on a bit of a roll of doing things against the grain.  So far, it's working for me; hopefully that continues.  We'll see when the turkeys are due to hatch this week!

The turkey mamas are doing fantastically with their babies in the netted yard.  We had a couple of casualties in the first day, when the little tiny poults were finding their way out of the pen through little tiny cracks we didn't even know were there.  But since then, it's been all good.  Mamas are keeping them warm, the poults are eating well and growing strong.  I have someone coming for 8 little ones this week, which will leave mama Tasha with 3 to raise.  Mama Violet still has her 3 (she hatched 10, I sold 4 and some winged predator gobbled down 3 before we could blink).

The chicks we hatched out this spring are all doing well.  My 4H Daughter is slowly but surely selling off her extra roosters to people who want "Daddy Birds" as opposed to dinner, which makes her very happy, and at this time, supplies her with just enough extra cash to pay for their food.  Man, those large breeds can EAT!  She's got the Buff Orphingtons, which we affectionately call "The Monsters".  They are so big, but so gentle, and they way they walk is a sight to behold.  It kind of reminds me of Jurrassic Park - Thud Thud Thud as they cruise the pasture.  Too Funny.  The marans and my 2 sweet little wheaton ameraucanas are coming along too.  They are just 10 weeks old, but so sweet and colorful!  It seems that out of my ameraucana eggs that hatched, I have gotten the ultimate chicken wish: 1 rooster and 1 hen.  Rooster has been named Sting (we name all the roosters after singers), and the hen?  "Happy".  'Cuz that's what I am that she's a hen :)

Lastly, for now anyway, I was perusing the chicken classifieds and thinking "I am NEVER going to find any dark silkies this year"  and lo and behold, the next ad I saw was just that -- Three 12 week old black silkies!  Obviously I didn't hesitate.  I was hoping to get a hen, but now it seems I may have a little breeding pair!  Oh bliss!

I'll sound off for now -- and publish again -- with Pictures! -- very soon.

Take care, friends.

:: In Progress ::

Well.  My dance card has been FULL lately, let me tell you!

So, in short, here's what's in progress around here ...

:: First batch of Buff Orphingtons are now old enough (and Big Enough!) to be in with the main flock
:: Second round of orphingtons - 3 buffs and 6 isobels - are in the transition yard beside the main flock
:: My birthday presents, the marans and wheaton ameraucanas, are now by themselves in the chick yard, covered by netting to protect them from winged predators
:: First hatch of turkeys happened Today!  Mama Violet hatched 10/10 eggs and is now in the Turkey Nursery yard, which is also covered with netting for the same reason as above
:: Tasha the Turkey hen is sitting on a clutch of eggs, due sometime next week
:: The garlic is going Mental
:: I have volunteer potatoes and New Zealand spinach in the garden - boy is it nice when plants come up all by themselves!
:: It's looking like a good crop of strawberries and raspberries this year!
:: We gave away 1 drake (kept 1), and are hatching ducklings in the incubator next week
:: The lambs are now 10 weeks old, and the boys have all been castrated (!)
:: My "shalom" sweater is near completion!

We've plateau'ed for a bit now -- garden is mostly planted, the lambs don't need to be doted upon, the chicks are all outside and doing well, the turkey mamas and babes have protection.  It's all just basic management at this point.  The ducklings will stir things up a bit next week and will require a little extra attention, and I have turkey eggs in the incubator too and my fingers are crossed that all goes well there.  I've only ever had mama-hatched poults before and they do SO well with mama.  Why the incubator then?  I had turkeys laying eggs all over and no one sitting on them, and really, at $15 per poult, it's a bit of gold when they hatch.  All the money we get from selling baby turkeys goes to feeding the rest of the birds, and it would be so nice not to dip into our personal savings to feed everyone this winter.

Next update: ducklings!

See you soon....