Saturday, October 26, 2013

Fridays (Saturday) on the Farm

The chicks are here!!  100 more broilers have arrived...they will be ready for you some time in January.  You will be able to reserve your chickens, and we will have our discounts as well...all that coming soon!


The piggies are here too!!!  We have been anticipating this for awhile!!  We went with an American Yorshire-Duroc cross.  We're not too conerned about the breed really...raising them right is what we're after here on our farmstead!  The big one is 12 weeks old, then we have 2 sisters that are 10 weeks old, and a little wee one that is 8 weeks old.
We will keep one to breed with a friend's hog, and the other 3 will be butchered sometime in May-June.  Can't wait for a freezer full of bacon and sausages!!  Keep your eye out for our pre-order on pork.

Pigs being pigs...rooting!!  They are in a holding pen for now for protection, but once they are big enough to fend for themselves we will move them around our acreage monthly to allow them to freely root and graze like pigs are created to do.  This will be done using the Salatin model...with a simple line of electric fencing about 12 inches or so off the ground to keep predators out and pigs in.  Understand, yes, a coyote or fox could jump the line of electric fence if it really wanted to get to the pigs, but the pigs will be large enough nothing will mess with them!
Caitlin decided the eggmobile needed a facelift!! (it used to be white) I LOVE it red!  And I love even more seeing Cait take the initiative to fix something up without being asked to!  I'm sure the laying hens appreciate it as well :)
And we've had our first injury to one of our goats...our baby Jesse.  Cait noticed a big bloody gash right above her hoof.  So we cleaned it up, gave it a good bandage and put her back in the pen.  We will keep an eye on it for the next few weeks.
Graycie and Ellie planted some sunflowers a few months back....they have been faithfully watering, weeding and composting them.  As you can tell, they are very tall!  And....
....Don't they look beautiful??!!  I was afraid we planted them too late and weren't going to see their beauty, but here they are!  Our honey bees are all over them constantly...we planted them right next to the hives.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Happy Birthday to our Ellie Bellie!!  2 years has flown by!  You are such a joy to us all!!