Better Days

So, I was right, and it is better. Yesterday Mr Farmer and I spent some time looking through the poultry catalog and deciding what we would like to order. So many choices! Today we have spent a fairly quiet day on the farm. We have a sick rabbit in the house, hoping she gets well and can go back outside soon. We have a new addition to the farm, a 12 week old Great Pyrenees puppy named Elvis. He is taking up some time, trying to get him housebroken. And we have had him out around the animals, which he doesn't seem to notice much. Lady, our little house dog, is trying to love him, but still growls and snaps at him occasionally.

Got a couple inches of snow Friday night, its almost all melted now. Back to school for the little farmers tomorrow, and back to work for me and Mr Farmer. I think I will start some tomato seeds sometime this week. I am anxious for spring to get here. Nothing like playing in the dirt to soothe a soul.

Simple Life??

Our donkey, Hugo, died this morning. So, we spent a huge part of our day trying to figure out what to do with his body. Thanks to some fantastic neighbors, it is done, and we are trying to move forward. It has been a hard day and I keep wondering again why people call this the simple life. What we do here is hardly ever simple. It is our choice, and we love this life, but easy, it is not. Days like today, I focus on all the good things, and pray hard. Tomorrow will be better.

rabbits and a mean turkey

We sold two of our little lionhead rabbits today...they are going to a nice new home as 4H projects, what fun! I think I might be at a point where I will keep the rest of the rabbits, and add on some new meat rabbit breeding stock. Still have 2 turkeys to get rid of, the big blue slate tom is not a nice turkey at all. I have been known to sell chickens just because they have no personality, and this mean boy definitely needs to find a new home. Well, either that or he goes to freezer camp soon.

We are expecting our first real snow of this winter tonight and tomorrow and I can't wait. The kids are excited and hoping for a snow day. I love watching them sled down the big hill.

On a sad note, just over a year since the chicken attack, I found myself trying to save Heckle once again. It was not to be. Heckle the boss roo left for rooster Heaven today from his spot on top of the washing machine.

So many blessings this weekend! Saturday morning, Mr Vaughn stopped by to say someone was wanting a quarter of a cow, and were we still interested in a half. YES!! So, sometime soon we will be buying a side of beef to fill the freezer. Saturday afternoon, we were filling the bed of the truck with metal. Mr H, the worlds greatest farm neighbor just had it laying out in the barn, and said we could have it. It's just what we need for our brooder shed, rabbitry, and barn. We will go back soon to get the rest, we couldn't fit it all yesterday.

Yet another learning curve with the chickens, we may have an egg eater. A goose egg and a chicken egg that our little bantam was sitting on disappeared. That hen house is as tight as Ft Knox, so I know no critter got in and ate them. At least with the new load of straw Mr Farmer put in there, the eggs aren't freezing now.

Calling for snow tomorrow, the cold this week has been brutal. It's back to work for me tomorrow, and back to school for the little farmers. Looking forward to getting back to our routine.

So, I did laundry today, since we hadn't done any in over a week. No big deal, except, remember, that my dryer died over a year ago, and I haven't replaced it? It's 20F outside right now, with the wind chill making it feel like 10. To save myself from freeze-dried clothes, Mr Farmer and I hung them on hangers in the house. 5 loads of laundry=a house FULL of wet clothes. Little farmers go back to school on Monday though, so I was determined to have everything washed.

We spent the morning outside busting ice from waterers and taking warm water to our spoiled critters. Definitely still on a learning curve with the chickens...we had several eggs in the henhouse, but they had all froze and busted. Mr Farmer is putting more straw in the henhouse to help warm them up, all the goats, donkey, and rabbits have plenty of straw, and bellies full of hay.

What a way to ring in 2010, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes its hard, but it's a good life, and its all ours. I wish you all much love, peace and happiness for the New Year.

Another Blessed day on the farm

What a blessed day we have had!! For the first time ever, we went to a sale barn/flea market to set up and sell some things. We had 7 rabbits, and 12 hens to sell, so I took some baked goods along. We sold all the animals in less than 2 hours. When we got home we had a message from someone we gave our card to who wanted to come to the farm and buy some chickens. So we sold 11 more to him. The barnyard looks kind of empty now, although, there are still plenty of critters out there :) As I was walking around the pond, I found a hidden nest with 6 eggs in it, some white, some brown, and a couple duck eggs too! It is so nice to look over and see our little Australorp following all over the farm. She talks to us, isn't scared at all, and she is a very pretty little hen. We still have 12 rabbits, and I have an email from someone who wants harlequins when I breed them again. Passing out our business card was an excellent idea. We let lots of people know we are getting an egg license and will be selling eggs at that location on Saturdays. Soon will be time for butchering turkeys. 5 of them to put in the freezer, unless we decide to sell one.

Tomorrow we will be getting some donkeys delivered. New experience, again. It will be a fun adventure. Lots to still get done before winter sets in. It is already too cold for October, freeze advisory for tonight. Good night to sit and knit a while. :)

Yucky day here today...lots of wind and rain and lightning. Thought we were gonna need goatie floaties there for a while. Everyone made it through okay, the ducks thought they had gone to Heaven. The pond filled up and they swam around for a good while. I did go to the garden tonight, picked a tomato, several cucumbers, Mr Farmer cut some okra, and I picked a basket full of green beans. Came in, snapped and blanched and froze those. They will be sooo yummy this winter! Saw 3 sweet delight melons about softball size out there. We have been looking forward to seeing some, the vines are everywhere, but we couldn't find the melons until today. One week until school starts here, little boy farmer will be in Kindergarten. He got his physical yesterday, still has to go to the dentist before school starts, and informed me this morning that he has a wiggly tooth. He is growin up way too fast! Little girl farmer will be in 3rd grade, finally old enough for real 4H, should be fun!
Hoping the weather holds out the rest of the week, need to get some fencing done, and work on the barn this weekend.

This is Heckle, also known around here as boss rooster. The little chick I currently have in a cage in my kitchen is his offspring. No wonder its a survivor. The little thing is flyin around it's cage, and follows anyone who walks by. Not much to say today, just found this pic and thought I would share it here....

• Saturday, July 18, 2009 - Grandma's canner

Broke up a bushel of green beans yesterday, with mom's help :) only to find my gasket in my canner isn't fitting right. Broke out my grandma's old canner and voila, 20 quarts of green beans! I didn't really think it would work, it has been moved probably 6 times since I have had it, and it sat in grandma's attic before that, but I was ready to try anything. Thank goodness my mom came up to help me with my first time pressure canning, not sure I could've figured it all out myself. This morning I went to the garden and picked a few cucumbers, some squash, some green beans, an onion and dug a few new potatoes. Something has been digging out there and I found 3 potatoes with bites out of them. After seeing those, I couldn't resist digging some for our supper. We did eat the rabbit stew, it was actually pretty good. Today we have 3 roosters to go to freezer camp, then I think butchering will be done until my turkeys are big enough. I am back out to the garden...I have some ideas about starting some fall veggies, and enlarging the garden spot quite a bit, the weather is nice enough to make that happen this weekend I think. ~Blooming where we're planted~

• Friday, June 19, 2009 - It makes it all worth it

I was just standing at the window watching little girl farmer chase a chicken around the barnyard. She has her summer hair, and her sundress, and flipflops and looks like the picture of summer. She turns into a different kid when she's at the barnyard. Makes me extremely happy we made the choice to move to our own farm. We had a bad storm yesterday. The barnyard got pretty flooded and Mr Farmer had to go rescue a broody hen. I swear she woulda died before getting off that nest. We got a new goat on Tuesday from the dog pound. They found him wandering around next to a road, held him the required time for a stray..although I have never heard of a stray goat, then we adopted him. I am sure someone bought his mother at auction, then turned him loose since he is a wether. He is very gentle though, and friendly, and a good starter baby goat for little girl farmer to practice on for 4H next year. He is also about the same size as our first little doeling Clover, so I am hoping they will be pals once they get used to each other. It's nice to see the barnyard so full of life :) And the garden has taken off. We got a squash and a tomato so far, and several radishes. I am surprised since we got it out pretty late, its doing well. The little farmers were soooo excited to get those first fresh veggies that they helped grow. They are learning all about where food comes from, and are not opposed to eating a chicken they have seen butchered, which also surprises me. Mr farmer butchered his first rabbits today, so we will see now if we can really eat them. I hope to keep this updated more frequently, just hard to do with so much going on, but it is nice to look back and see the changes. ~Blooming where we're planted~