The meat birds are 7 weeks old and we've started planning butchering day. Papa and I think these are the nicest birds we have ever had!! They are beautiful!! LOL. Well sort of. No really they are. They are healthy, active, large breasted, clean and alert. They have been out on pasture for the last 3 weeks. Moved to a new spot daily and are great grazers!! They love being moved and rush out and gobble up the new grass. They chase bugs and scratch at the earth and are generally happy little critters. So far the loss count is about 14 out of 218. Not super wonderful but not bad either considering they are all cockerals. (which grow faster and often have worse heart problems because of their fast growth.) They are still getting milk daily and gorge themselves on it. Lately the milk has just been offered in rubber maid 4 inch tubs, instead of being mixed as wet feed as several were hogging the wet feed and getting it all every day. I called these my 'milk babies' and they would follow me around and beg for milk every time I went in the pen. Now more of the birds are getting milk even though we are still giving them the same amount. Butchering day will be a bit of a turning point here this year as the cow is dry and the meat birds will be gone and all we'll have left is the pigs, and layers. It's perfect timing as my side of the family's "Camp out" also called the "Fehr Family Rain Out" is coming up in July and we'll be able to feed everyone and leave for the weekend without worrying about getting some one to feed and tend all the meat birds or milk the cow. How sweet will that be!!
Anyway back to butchering day. We're going to try and get as many as possible done in one day and what ever is left the next day. We also bought 6 'clean' garbage cans, I wrote CLEAN on them, for cooling tanks so we now should be able to fit most if not all of the birds in cooling tanks. This has been a space problem for several years and limits us to how many birds we could do in one day. We wanted to do 100 one day and 100 the next but everyone can only come the one day so we are going to try and get most done that day!! So now I got to make my 'to do before butchering list" and work to get it done before everyone shows up. Butchering around here is a bit different every year. One year we had the use of a 6 bird tub plucker which was lovely and a 6 bird rotating scalder.. also lovely. But the last 2 years we've been using a old hooded chicken plucker, borrowed from a friend, and a maul gropen or a large round tub that you put a tiger torch under to heat the water for a scalder. One year we scalded in the maul gropen and plucked totally by hand. I sat and plucked and cleaned and Papa did everything else. So all in all a plucker AND a scalder is really easy. Really it is. I don't mind chicken butchering days so long as we don't plan for more then we can handle. This year we have had 6 couples offer to help and so far 3 are for sure coming. One couple has a teenage son who loves to be our catcher!! With him there will be 9 adults. :) That is a big help. Last year J helped and loved it. I'm sure he'll want to help again this year. Maybe he'll be a chicken catcher 'helper' this year. Once we get everything set up and working the day flows by pretty smoothly. Papa and I have been butchering chickens together for years and have a pretty good system worked out. The hardest part of the whole process is trying to get the helpers to fit into our system. But I think we'll find that easier this year as we've butchered with some of these people a few years in a row. Several of the couples, both or just one of them, have NOT ever butchered chickens before. Or have not done it in 15 or more years. Thankfully they all are willing and able to take directions. One couple wants to help butcher just so that they can say they have done it. That's fine with us!! They are a younger couple and she is very interested in how we raise our birds and would like to raise her own some day. The T family has their own birds this year and we are planing on trading with them. They'll help us and we'll help them. We'll all use the same equipment!
Part of my 'to do' list is done. I sorted through and cleaned out the 3 freezers and am feeding some of the old (2006, 07, there was NO 08:) stuff to the pigs. Boy do they love that. I also rendered lard yesterday in the 'mual gropen' or big cook pot outside. I got 39 quarts of lard and 8 of cracklings!! A good days work!! The T family is bringing lunch for butchering day and I still have some pies left over from Sunday so all I have to figure out is supper. I think I'll do a roast on the BBQ and potatoes and a salad. And if I can hide some eggs from Papa maybe I'll be able to make some chocolate chip cookies. He has a habit of using every egg in the house when ever he cooks. But I do love it when he cooks.
The kids are all excited about butchering day too. J and L are on count down. Counting down how many sleeps til butchering day. They are also looking forward to the T's coming over for the day. The 7 of them have a blast!!
Anyway I'll let you know how it went and I'll try and post some pictures later. We are still having Internet problems and it has slowed me down some.
Christmas 2013
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
A day in the life... Of me :)
I thought some of you would like to know what a fairly typical summer day on our farm is like. Summer brings longer hours of light and lots to do on these 5 acres. We've been here 4 years now and it seems like every year we get some stuff done and find more things we'd like to do. But slowly our place is shaping up. Bindy, our cow, is dry now (as in not milking, waiting for her calf) and is eating less then ever before. So this year we actually, so far, have an abundance of grass. She's still working on the yard and only went to the neighbors place 3 days several weeks ago when our grass wasn't quite big enough but his was perfect; his having had more sun. Anyway the reason I bring her up is because we are not choring her at all these last few days and that is something we'd normally be doing as well.
Papa gets up, eats and heads off to work. He has to be there at 8am so he normally gets up around 7. This morning he put together a marinade for a pork roast so he got up a bit early. He likes to cook and I encourage him :) I get up around 8am these days as there is no cow to milk. When I do have to milk I get up at 7. I head outside to feed the meat birds: they get 2 five gallon buckets of feed morning and evening and 1 every afternoon. Soon I'll have to make it 2 every afternoon. One of the mornings buckets is wet feed mixed with milk that we saved just for them. This morning they needed moving so I fed them outside the pen they were in, let them out and showed them the feed and then took down the electric netting and reset it up around them in the new area. The first few times we do this they are a bit confused but by about the 3rd time they have figured it right out and today not a single bird was left behind. I haul their 15 gallon waterer into the new pen and fill it with the garden hose. Chicks are done til afternoon. Then I grab another 5 gallon bucket of feed and wet it with water and transfer it in to 2 five gallon buckets for easier carrying. It's harder on you back to carry one full bucket then to carry 2 even buckets. I haul them about 250 feet to the pig pen. The piggies are sleepy but happy to see me. I fill their trough (it moves with them) and talk to them a bit. They pretty much ignore me and eat like they've never seen food before. Gluttons. After the pigs I head out a bit farther to see Forrest the black sheep and his little band of laying hens. I have about 18 layers but only about 7 are in. The rest are out enjoying their freedom until Papa and I have time to sneak out at night and clip their wings so that they can't get out anymore. Until we do this there is no point to trying to keep them in. Forrest and his gang need a new spot so I tie him to a willow and move the 2 chunks of shorter electric netting that make up their pen. I manage to keep all the hens in!! WOW. Maybe I will graduate to 'farmer' yet.. I've been a lousy apprentice for toooooo looonnngggg. I drag the nest boxes along the ground and into the new pen. Then I go get them some water and while I'm at it get the pigs some as well. Two buckets are easier to carry remember? Normally I head to my green house and give it a quick watering/look over but this morning I've been longer then normal, I rarely have to move 2 pens in one day, and so I head inside to see what time it is and if the kids are up.
Inside it's 9am and I'm amazed how much one person can get done in an hour!! I was sure it was closer to 10. Oh well. Lucky for me. I go and sit on our bed and read my devotions. I've pretty much finished the Bible in NKJV in the last 18 months so I've started reading it in The Message. I love it. It's so easy to understand. I started in Genesis and I'm finding that I have to make myself stop reading so that I can pray before the kids get up. I get right caught up in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and now Jacob. I finish my devo's and consider a shower. It's 9:20. The kids should be up any minute. I decide to shower at nap time as I'm going to weed later. I wander around for a bit waiting for the kids before I start making pancakes for breakfast. Papa has a Doctor appointment for his knee today and will be coming home at 10 to shower before heading back into town to see her. At 10 I am half finished frying pancakes and the kids are STILL NOT UP. So I go wake them up. L and R are still sleeping and neither want to get up. R needs a cuddle so I cuddle and flip pancakes and tell E to go to the bathroom. J is wide awake and talking. The kid could win a medal for 'never ending chatter box.' L gets up a few minutes later, he's still asleep but he's on his feet. In a very few minutes they are all playing on the floor while I finish breakfast and check my facebook and email.
Papa gets home at 10:15 and the kids are all eating. He has a quick shower, gives me a kiss, tells the kids to be good and he's off again. He doesn't want to eat, he already had breakfast. After breakfast I supervise the days dressing and soon everyone is out of PJ's and dressed in shorts and T-shirts. They can all dress themselves except R who I still dress. E has recently learned how to put her shirt on and now can get completely dressed by herself!!! The boys have a fuss over a pair of pants and I intervene. Then I kick them all outside!! Right before we head out J goes to the bathroom and comes out with bad news. We have no water. I check the kitchen. Nope. OK. I know how to fix it but I first need to know why. The pressure tank will switch off if it gets too empty. Like say if the sprinkler and the hose are on at the same time. Papa needs to fix this. But he's not sure what else to try. But we should have been fine. The house doesn't effect this or hasn't. So I grab a sweater and some gloves and crawl 6 feet under the house!!! SHUDDER!! I fiddle with it and finally get it filling again and crawl out. By the time I get out I can hear water running. Wait that's not right. I rush over and see where it is. It's coming out of a unused irrigation pipe that's been rolled up so we can clean out the cow area. One of the fittings has popped off. So I go find a screwdriver and put it back on. Back under the trailer I go. SHUDDER!! I hate it under there. It's wet and spidery and NASTY. I get it going again. Wait several minutes to make sure and crawl back out. I get to the front yard and the sprinkler is NOT working. It should be. Back I go AGAIN. I re fix the pipe fitting and crawl BACK UNDER THE HOUSE AGAIN!!!! SHUDDER!! By now I'm a pro. I get it going. Wait in the damp, dark, NASTY, hole and climb out to wonderful sunshiny day!!! This time the pipe fitting stayed on and the sprinkler is going when I round the corner. That job done. And yes I did head inside to wash off the NASTY and make sure the water works!! Today is a outside day. We've had 2 inside days in a row and we're all glad to be going outside. On inside days we do things like laundry (this week I did about 9 loads, including all the bedding and our swimming stuff from the weekend), cleaning (this week it was sweeping cobwebs, wiping bugs off walls, vacuuming the whole house, putting away, bathrooms, and wiping down the house; doors, oven, dusting, chairs and table, etc), organizing kids clothes, (someone is always outgrowing something) making supper ( baked chicken and potatoes and chicken strogginoff this week) and sewing projects (I put this last because it is my LEAST favorite but I did get one done) With the rain this week I figured I'd better catch up on the house stuff. I have a feeling I'm not going to get to it for awhile. Last summer I never did seem to be able to keep it up and finally did a HUGE cleaning in the fall and reorangaized the whole house. With such a small space it 'needs doing' often. On inside days I also try and do a bit of 'school' which each of the kids. J is learning number recognition and adding and verses, L is learning to count to 20 (that's the tough one) and verses. E is learning to count to 10 (she always misses 4) and her name, my name, Papa's name etc and her verse and some colors. R is learning where her nose, toes, fingers etc are. It's fun and it's good for all of us. They also often have a time to do something fun alone. Like a puzzle or book or game. Normally this happens when I'm working with one and the others get to do a "school'.
The chicks are in the front yard so the kids can't play in the sandbox or on the trampoline. That's OK. The carport is empty and they play in there and on the drive way. I head over to weed the beans and corn. My beans are doing nicer then ever before and I'm really hoping to get a good crop this year. The corn is not doing so hot and I'm not sure why. Some of it didn't even come up. How disappointing. I weed the whole garden in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Not too shabby. I have black fabric between my rows which really cuts down on the chickweed!! I pretty much just weed between plants. We stop for a quick freezie break. They all want white. R and I share a purple. R climbs the stairs by the porch and falls off. A first. She's fine just a little bump. Then she did it again. Time to go in! The kids clean up toys which are all over the driveway and I quickly finish the last row of beans. Toys cleaned up we all run down the driveway a few times to tire us out for naps. R enjoys walking half way down and then starts to whine. I run past her a few times, which makes her madder, and then we walk for a bit, run for a bit. R is totally bewildered. She's tired and needs some lunch. One last run down the driveway and I pick her up on the go and jog holding E's hand to the house. E loves to FLY with me as I jog. Her feet barely touch the ground. Some days we go for a bike ride/run but today it was too warm and we're too hungry!! It's about 72F in the shade. But that's pretty nice for us these days.
When we get inside the kids all run to wash 'with soap' and I wash my garden hands and R's playing hands in the kitchen sink. Her hands are so tiny compared to mine and so clean!! Lunch is peanut butter and jam for the boys, jam for the girls (E is allergic) and peanut butter and honey for me. L is my helper and brings the others their lunches as I do them up. He also gets to pray for the meal. What a good kid!! J eats his 2 sided bun, and another and the last bit of mine. He is growing like crazy. He says he's still hungry but I make him finish his water and then he is done. After washing up again the kids wait while I clean up R and then they make me a deal. If they all have a good sleep they can watch a movie. Bribery I know. But they haven't been sleeping well and then they get cranky. Besides nap time = Momma time. And I need it. 2 hours of peace!!! LOL. No more like 2 hours of WORK.
I sit and relax in front of the computer for a bit but the connection isn't connecting so I give up and head back outside. I normally wait 15 to 30 minutes inside to make sure they don't just get up and play but actually lay still and sleep. Today I don't think they'll need it. It's very quiet so I go out early.
I grab my keys and walk to check the mail. Papa has a birthday coming up and there is 2 cards for him. Several bills and a notice about the new Chinese food place in town. And a surprise a picture of Kirsten our niece who is 6 months old. She's beaming into the camera. What a little sweetheart. I head to the 'barn' and grab my machete and some gloves. I'm hacking down the little poplars in the areas the chicks have already been in. It's hard work and last time I blistered my pinkie finger on the end of the handle. This time the gloves help a lot and no blisters. I hack down about half of the area that needs it still. You need a good hard swing and then sometimes the trees fall and sometimes they don't. I hack and hack at them. I also go over the last piece I did and get the few I missed. This is hard work. I finish my row and go and weed the flower bed. I have 2 flower beds. Surprised?? Flowers don't like me. They just die on me. These 2 beds were here when we got here. The front one is the one I tackle. Bindy has munched around it but I go and clean up the rest of the dandelions and the few thistle. The beds about 15 feet by 5 feet and it takes a while. I make great big mounds of spent dandelions and grass. I don't mind dandelions in my beds but when they are finished they make it look shabby so I pull them out. I like the look of the tall flowering grasses so I leave them as well. The sprinkler is up, I set it up this morning, on the last area the chicks had and I dodge it and weed the whole bed. I only got wet 4 times and it felt good! The chicks stand as close to me as they can get and beg.. They don't want weeds I'm finding. They want more grain and they have to wait. We are almost out of feed and Papa is going to get another load tonight. They don't give up and beg the whole time. Bindy grazes behind them then lays down in the shade to chew her cud. I'd love to join her with a good book!! I also weed around the horseradish and cumphrey. Both are doing fairly well. I bring the weeds in the wheelbarrow (the BIG ONE) to the pigs. They are less interested then I thought and react badly when I throw the weeds in. Then they wait to see if the weeds will jump up and get them. When the weeds are obviously dead they come take a look but don't even eat any. Maybe later. Papa gave them a new 2 wire pen last night and are they very happy. On the way back to the house I stop at the other flower patch and pull 2 thistles and a handful of poplar mini trees. This bed has never been a favorite of mine but the chickens sure like it. I think I'll take it totally out. It's not even got pretty flowers. I'm done outside and head in for a DRINK!!
Inside I grab a glass and head to the computer.. and here I've sat telling you about my day. About 20 minutes into it the kids got up and are playing in the living room behind me. I did promise them a movie but they don't mind waiting for a little while. But I think I'm going to put in their movie. That is one bad thing about not having a TV I can't write while the kids are watching movies. Today I don't mind. Papa should be home in 45 minutes (about 6:30) and I never did get my shower!! Thank goodness Papa's making supper... though I have a funny feeling that "the apprentice" might get a lesson in BBQing pork roast as Papa also has to go get feed tonight. I don't mind I LOVE pork roast!!! As I finish this the kids are talking about the movie they want to watch and cleaning up toys. It's amazing how many toys 4 kids and get out in a short amount of time. They want to watch 'Prince of Egypt', a new favorite, and are very excited. Evenings around here can be very exciting but I'll have to tell you about it another time!! Have a wonderful day and God Bless.
Papa gets up, eats and heads off to work. He has to be there at 8am so he normally gets up around 7. This morning he put together a marinade for a pork roast so he got up a bit early. He likes to cook and I encourage him :) I get up around 8am these days as there is no cow to milk. When I do have to milk I get up at 7. I head outside to feed the meat birds: they get 2 five gallon buckets of feed morning and evening and 1 every afternoon. Soon I'll have to make it 2 every afternoon. One of the mornings buckets is wet feed mixed with milk that we saved just for them. This morning they needed moving so I fed them outside the pen they were in, let them out and showed them the feed and then took down the electric netting and reset it up around them in the new area. The first few times we do this they are a bit confused but by about the 3rd time they have figured it right out and today not a single bird was left behind. I haul their 15 gallon waterer into the new pen and fill it with the garden hose. Chicks are done til afternoon. Then I grab another 5 gallon bucket of feed and wet it with water and transfer it in to 2 five gallon buckets for easier carrying. It's harder on you back to carry one full bucket then to carry 2 even buckets. I haul them about 250 feet to the pig pen. The piggies are sleepy but happy to see me. I fill their trough (it moves with them) and talk to them a bit. They pretty much ignore me and eat like they've never seen food before. Gluttons. After the pigs I head out a bit farther to see Forrest the black sheep and his little band of laying hens. I have about 18 layers but only about 7 are in. The rest are out enjoying their freedom until Papa and I have time to sneak out at night and clip their wings so that they can't get out anymore. Until we do this there is no point to trying to keep them in. Forrest and his gang need a new spot so I tie him to a willow and move the 2 chunks of shorter electric netting that make up their pen. I manage to keep all the hens in!! WOW. Maybe I will graduate to 'farmer' yet.. I've been a lousy apprentice for toooooo looonnngggg. I drag the nest boxes along the ground and into the new pen. Then I go get them some water and while I'm at it get the pigs some as well. Two buckets are easier to carry remember? Normally I head to my green house and give it a quick watering/look over but this morning I've been longer then normal, I rarely have to move 2 pens in one day, and so I head inside to see what time it is and if the kids are up.
Inside it's 9am and I'm amazed how much one person can get done in an hour!! I was sure it was closer to 10. Oh well. Lucky for me. I go and sit on our bed and read my devotions. I've pretty much finished the Bible in NKJV in the last 18 months so I've started reading it in The Message. I love it. It's so easy to understand. I started in Genesis and I'm finding that I have to make myself stop reading so that I can pray before the kids get up. I get right caught up in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and now Jacob. I finish my devo's and consider a shower. It's 9:20. The kids should be up any minute. I decide to shower at nap time as I'm going to weed later. I wander around for a bit waiting for the kids before I start making pancakes for breakfast. Papa has a Doctor appointment for his knee today and will be coming home at 10 to shower before heading back into town to see her. At 10 I am half finished frying pancakes and the kids are STILL NOT UP. So I go wake them up. L and R are still sleeping and neither want to get up. R needs a cuddle so I cuddle and flip pancakes and tell E to go to the bathroom. J is wide awake and talking. The kid could win a medal for 'never ending chatter box.' L gets up a few minutes later, he's still asleep but he's on his feet. In a very few minutes they are all playing on the floor while I finish breakfast and check my facebook and email.
Papa gets home at 10:15 and the kids are all eating. He has a quick shower, gives me a kiss, tells the kids to be good and he's off again. He doesn't want to eat, he already had breakfast. After breakfast I supervise the days dressing and soon everyone is out of PJ's and dressed in shorts and T-shirts. They can all dress themselves except R who I still dress. E has recently learned how to put her shirt on and now can get completely dressed by herself!!! The boys have a fuss over a pair of pants and I intervene. Then I kick them all outside!! Right before we head out J goes to the bathroom and comes out with bad news. We have no water. I check the kitchen. Nope. OK. I know how to fix it but I first need to know why. The pressure tank will switch off if it gets too empty. Like say if the sprinkler and the hose are on at the same time. Papa needs to fix this. But he's not sure what else to try. But we should have been fine. The house doesn't effect this or hasn't. So I grab a sweater and some gloves and crawl 6 feet under the house!!! SHUDDER!! I fiddle with it and finally get it filling again and crawl out. By the time I get out I can hear water running. Wait that's not right. I rush over and see where it is. It's coming out of a unused irrigation pipe that's been rolled up so we can clean out the cow area. One of the fittings has popped off. So I go find a screwdriver and put it back on. Back under the trailer I go. SHUDDER!! I hate it under there. It's wet and spidery and NASTY. I get it going again. Wait several minutes to make sure and crawl back out. I get to the front yard and the sprinkler is NOT working. It should be. Back I go AGAIN. I re fix the pipe fitting and crawl BACK UNDER THE HOUSE AGAIN!!!! SHUDDER!! By now I'm a pro. I get it going. Wait in the damp, dark, NASTY, hole and climb out to wonderful sunshiny day!!! This time the pipe fitting stayed on and the sprinkler is going when I round the corner. That job done. And yes I did head inside to wash off the NASTY and make sure the water works!! Today is a outside day. We've had 2 inside days in a row and we're all glad to be going outside. On inside days we do things like laundry (this week I did about 9 loads, including all the bedding and our swimming stuff from the weekend), cleaning (this week it was sweeping cobwebs, wiping bugs off walls, vacuuming the whole house, putting away, bathrooms, and wiping down the house; doors, oven, dusting, chairs and table, etc), organizing kids clothes, (someone is always outgrowing something) making supper ( baked chicken and potatoes and chicken strogginoff this week) and sewing projects (I put this last because it is my LEAST favorite but I did get one done) With the rain this week I figured I'd better catch up on the house stuff. I have a feeling I'm not going to get to it for awhile. Last summer I never did seem to be able to keep it up and finally did a HUGE cleaning in the fall and reorangaized the whole house. With such a small space it 'needs doing' often. On inside days I also try and do a bit of 'school' which each of the kids. J is learning number recognition and adding and verses, L is learning to count to 20 (that's the tough one) and verses. E is learning to count to 10 (she always misses 4) and her name, my name, Papa's name etc and her verse and some colors. R is learning where her nose, toes, fingers etc are. It's fun and it's good for all of us. They also often have a time to do something fun alone. Like a puzzle or book or game. Normally this happens when I'm working with one and the others get to do a "school'.
The chicks are in the front yard so the kids can't play in the sandbox or on the trampoline. That's OK. The carport is empty and they play in there and on the drive way. I head over to weed the beans and corn. My beans are doing nicer then ever before and I'm really hoping to get a good crop this year. The corn is not doing so hot and I'm not sure why. Some of it didn't even come up. How disappointing. I weed the whole garden in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Not too shabby. I have black fabric between my rows which really cuts down on the chickweed!! I pretty much just weed between plants. We stop for a quick freezie break. They all want white. R and I share a purple. R climbs the stairs by the porch and falls off. A first. She's fine just a little bump. Then she did it again. Time to go in! The kids clean up toys which are all over the driveway and I quickly finish the last row of beans. Toys cleaned up we all run down the driveway a few times to tire us out for naps. R enjoys walking half way down and then starts to whine. I run past her a few times, which makes her madder, and then we walk for a bit, run for a bit. R is totally bewildered. She's tired and needs some lunch. One last run down the driveway and I pick her up on the go and jog holding E's hand to the house. E loves to FLY with me as I jog. Her feet barely touch the ground. Some days we go for a bike ride/run but today it was too warm and we're too hungry!! It's about 72F in the shade. But that's pretty nice for us these days.
When we get inside the kids all run to wash 'with soap' and I wash my garden hands and R's playing hands in the kitchen sink. Her hands are so tiny compared to mine and so clean!! Lunch is peanut butter and jam for the boys, jam for the girls (E is allergic) and peanut butter and honey for me. L is my helper and brings the others their lunches as I do them up. He also gets to pray for the meal. What a good kid!! J eats his 2 sided bun, and another and the last bit of mine. He is growing like crazy. He says he's still hungry but I make him finish his water and then he is done. After washing up again the kids wait while I clean up R and then they make me a deal. If they all have a good sleep they can watch a movie. Bribery I know. But they haven't been sleeping well and then they get cranky. Besides nap time = Momma time. And I need it. 2 hours of peace!!! LOL. No more like 2 hours of WORK.
I sit and relax in front of the computer for a bit but the connection isn't connecting so I give up and head back outside. I normally wait 15 to 30 minutes inside to make sure they don't just get up and play but actually lay still and sleep. Today I don't think they'll need it. It's very quiet so I go out early.
I grab my keys and walk to check the mail. Papa has a birthday coming up and there is 2 cards for him. Several bills and a notice about the new Chinese food place in town. And a surprise a picture of Kirsten our niece who is 6 months old. She's beaming into the camera. What a little sweetheart. I head to the 'barn' and grab my machete and some gloves. I'm hacking down the little poplars in the areas the chicks have already been in. It's hard work and last time I blistered my pinkie finger on the end of the handle. This time the gloves help a lot and no blisters. I hack down about half of the area that needs it still. You need a good hard swing and then sometimes the trees fall and sometimes they don't. I hack and hack at them. I also go over the last piece I did and get the few I missed. This is hard work. I finish my row and go and weed the flower bed. I have 2 flower beds. Surprised?? Flowers don't like me. They just die on me. These 2 beds were here when we got here. The front one is the one I tackle. Bindy has munched around it but I go and clean up the rest of the dandelions and the few thistle. The beds about 15 feet by 5 feet and it takes a while. I make great big mounds of spent dandelions and grass. I don't mind dandelions in my beds but when they are finished they make it look shabby so I pull them out. I like the look of the tall flowering grasses so I leave them as well. The sprinkler is up, I set it up this morning, on the last area the chicks had and I dodge it and weed the whole bed. I only got wet 4 times and it felt good! The chicks stand as close to me as they can get and beg.. They don't want weeds I'm finding. They want more grain and they have to wait. We are almost out of feed and Papa is going to get another load tonight. They don't give up and beg the whole time. Bindy grazes behind them then lays down in the shade to chew her cud. I'd love to join her with a good book!! I also weed around the horseradish and cumphrey. Both are doing fairly well. I bring the weeds in the wheelbarrow (the BIG ONE) to the pigs. They are less interested then I thought and react badly when I throw the weeds in. Then they wait to see if the weeds will jump up and get them. When the weeds are obviously dead they come take a look but don't even eat any. Maybe later. Papa gave them a new 2 wire pen last night and are they very happy. On the way back to the house I stop at the other flower patch and pull 2 thistles and a handful of poplar mini trees. This bed has never been a favorite of mine but the chickens sure like it. I think I'll take it totally out. It's not even got pretty flowers. I'm done outside and head in for a DRINK!!
Inside I grab a glass and head to the computer.. and here I've sat telling you about my day. About 20 minutes into it the kids got up and are playing in the living room behind me. I did promise them a movie but they don't mind waiting for a little while. But I think I'm going to put in their movie. That is one bad thing about not having a TV I can't write while the kids are watching movies. Today I don't mind. Papa should be home in 45 minutes (about 6:30) and I never did get my shower!! Thank goodness Papa's making supper... though I have a funny feeling that "the apprentice" might get a lesson in BBQing pork roast as Papa also has to go get feed tonight. I don't mind I LOVE pork roast!!! As I finish this the kids are talking about the movie they want to watch and cleaning up toys. It's amazing how many toys 4 kids and get out in a short amount of time. They want to watch 'Prince of Egypt', a new favorite, and are very excited. Evenings around here can be very exciting but I'll have to tell you about it another time!! Have a wonderful day and God Bless.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Fruits!
Looking good hey??? Last week we BBQ'd up some of last years birds, I'm emptying the last few out of the freezer to get ready for the new batch, and I chopped up some potatoes seasoned them and BBQ'd them as well!! YUMMMY!! Papa normally does the BBQing around here but this night he was busy and so 'the apprentice' (ME, as I'm the apprentice is all things around here:) got to do it. The birds are on roasting cones which cooks them evenly but Papa likes his breast meat just barely 160 F and I much prefer the dark meat (legs and thighs) to be closer to 200 F. So when the breast are done we carve them off and cook the rest to 200. The BBQ is large enough that we cold cook the birds. The propane is on under the side where the potatoes are but not under the chickens. This works great and only takes about 1.5 hours. Not too shabby!! These birds Papa seasoned with BBQ sauce under the skin which looks terrible while your doing it but taste wonderful!! Papa likes to experiment and tonight he is doing a lime chipotle marinade on a pork roast!! It's smelling wonderful and I can't wait til tonight.. but I'm going to have too :)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Berkshire Piggies!!
Here are so pictures of the 'girls'. They are from about 5 different litters which is why they are different sizes. . I'll try and get a better pic soon. They all have different markings on their faces. So far we love them. They are grazers and will pull up a plant like a cow and munch on it and only till lightly after they graze!! They are also like a Bindy when we move them and readily move to the next piece without a fuss!! They eagerly look forward to moves. All the pink pigs we've ever had have never enjoyed moving like these girls. It was often a fight to move them at all. They are also VERY smart and are trained to 2 wires already. Today if it stays nice they will get a new larger pen with just 2 wires instead of the little electric netting fences they have had. We do this because it's easier to build around trees and can be any size and because we need the electric netting for the meat birds. 
This is one of the smaller girls. See the white on all 4 feet and the white on her nose!!
This is one of the smaller girls. See the white on all 4 feet and the white on her nose!!SURPRISE!!!!
J lost his 1st tooth yesterday and was SUPER EXCITED. I guess it just fell out and he spit it into his hand. It's been loose for 2 weeks and his adult tooth was coming up from behind. The one next to it is loose as well. We put it in his 'tooth jar' to show Papa. My little man is growing up!!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Pigs.
Well here is a story I'm sure a few of you have been waiting for. We ordered 8 Berkshire wiener pigs late February from the only local couple who raised them. And it's a good thing we did! Pigs have been scarce this spring and every one is looking for wieners. Wieners are about 8 weeks old and 40 to 50 pound pigs. We actually got all females or gilts. Males are called barrows. One day mid May I made arraignments with the pig breeders to go and pick up the wieners the next night. The pigs, 5 sows (mama pigs) and their 25 offspring had the run of about 5 acres of bush/field and because they are getting out of the pig business they wanted to get the sows out of the area first. This makes for easier piglet handling. So the day before we went they had just shipped the 2 big sows out and gotten all the piglets into a small pen with a barn where they stayed until pickup. Because we ordered first we got first choice. Very nice. :) The 5 batches of piglets were all within 2 weeks so they were between 10 and 8 weeks old. Which explains the size difference a bit. Papa and I fussed a bit trying to figure out how we were going to get the pigs home. We normally use a couple of dog crates and haul them in the back of the travelall. But because we've never bought so many at once we knew they would not all fit. Last year we got 4 from one guy and 2 from another on different days so it wasn't a big deal. Well Papa had a great idea and it worked good too. :) The travelall is sort of like a suburban. But with about 5 feet behind the 2nd seat. The back is a tailgate with a window on the top. SO what we did was we cleaned out the back of the travelall. Put a tarp behind the kids carseats (between the car seat and the front of the seat) and tucked it in really well and then used the rest of the tarp as the floor. Then we just opened the window in the back and dropped the pigs in. We still have nose marks on the back windows. :) Now I have to admit when I first heard this idea a certain Patrick McMantis book came to mind. :) Something about pigs in sacks and pigs loose and looking over shoulders and a wild drive while trying to get wild pigs back in the sacks and ends with a cop in disbelief. Well thankfully that did not happen here. The pigs did try once to get into the back seat where the kids were but they gave it up when they realized they were surrounded. After that they just rushed around the back grunting and squealing all the way home.(Another picture missed sorry) The windows stayed half open all the way home as well... (but wonderfully the smell went out totally with the tarp)
Well we had the pen we wanted to put the pigs in set up beforehand. In fact we'd had chickens and sheep in it for several weeks. It was a electric netting fence around the area that the cow had used last winter for her hay area. We wanted them to till it up for us. Well we backed up to the pen, over the side of the fence and put the window down opened the tailgate and off they went. 123456 little piggies in the pen. I RAN to turn it on about the same time Bindy (the cow) realized that we had done it again!! The crazy humans are always bringing home stray critters that she disapproves of. PIGS. Bindy dislikes new critters and BOTH Papa and I realized later that we should have tied her up before hand. We also should have checked the fence. Unfortunately we did not. HEY chickens and sheep had already been in it!! Well it had also rained the whole night throughout the day before and left the posts in the clay a bit loose. Too loose. Much too loose. Bindy started to BAWL at the top of her lungs.. and she has good lungs. By this point the fence was on. I can run fast when needed :) 4 of the pigs hit the fence and decided that it hurt and they'd stay away from it. Another thing that we had not realized.. or maybe I had not realized was that these pigs had almost NO contact with humans at all their whole lives. And they'd had the run of 5 acres. Not just a little patch. The other two pigs hit the fence again and again until it flipped over and they raced under it... into the chicken pen. Also electric netting. Also a rained on fence. Chickens don't care. Pigs care!! Well we were settling the 4 down and watching them and trying to get Bindy to shut up.. she did eventually. She's almost as well behaved as some dogs when it comes to bawling. We're always yelling at her. Anyway we thought that the two escapees were in with the chickens and when we went to look for them they were GONE!!! Two black and white pigs off in the bush at 8pm. Good luck!! NOT!! Actually it was still light enough out that we searched for an hour and a half before giving up and going inside. Papa saw them twice in this 90 minutes. He also said that he was walking behind them and they would stop in the bush so quietly that he kept on walking right by and then they would turn and RUN away!! (it was almost dark) I didn't see them once. They were bush trained. Over the next week we realized how well. That night I called the people who own the patch of land that is behind our lease. I told them to be on the lookout. For all we knew they would keep on going. Our neighbor said she doubted they would last the night. Both Papa and I knew they would.
It was a relief the next morning when I went for a quick walkabout to hear pig grunting by my pond and when I peaked though the bush to see the piglets standing stock still in the middle of a bush road. They were so stealthily that they did not MOVE for several minutes waiting to see what I would do. I did nothing and went home happy they were alive and that we had a chance to get them back. When I got back to the house I called Papa at work to relieve his mind as well. Well now we knew where they were but now to get them home with their sisters. This same morning I got a phone call. They had our last two pigs ready for us. There was some muddling and it turned out we got all 8 of ours now instead of having to wait for the next batch to be ready. Better for us for sure. So I called Papa again at work and we made plans to go again that night and get the last 2 pigs. This time we used the dog crate and only Papa and J, L and E ended up going as the peat moss came the same night and I needed to be here for that. That trip was uneventful and the 2 new pigs (also gilts) settled right in inside the crate and they were asleep when they got home!! Papa put a pig in each arm and walked over to the pig pen. One of the two screamed almost the whole way and both Papa and I half wished that this would call the other two out of the bush. But it did not. The two new gilts settled right in and there was no problems at all. Bindy was tied up at the neighbors piece of grass; we do learn :P This batch of pigs was so wild that they huddled for almost 2 days in one area, running when ever we came within shouting distance. Not that we shouted.. just looked.
Well, over the next 24 hours we realized, with discreet checks, that the 2 bush pigs were not going anywhere. They stayed within a certain distance of where we assume they had found a hole in a slash pile to sleep in. We considered building a electric fence around them, dismissing this because of the noise the chain saw would have made while making a path around them to even get a fence up. The area where they were (yes we got them in) was part of our lease right behind our place. Marshy, wet, close to the pond for water and totally overgrown with 2 inch poplar trees and bush. To walk though this area it's step, step on a log, step, step on a log!! The whole way. There was NO way we could chase them so we decided to bait them. Papa got a bucket of milk and grain and I placed it close to the fence were they had found a hole. I checked this bucket 3 times that 1st day and it had not been touched. But the ground where I had seen them the 1st time was getting well tilled!! They had not been able to get to the area where the bucket was. I think it was too wet for them to walk through while thinking. They raced over it that 1st night but had better sense the next day. SO I moved the bucket. The next morning, day 2, they had eaten the grain off the ground in front of the bucket but not put their heads in the bucket. I moved it away from the fence a bit and checked it again later. Later they had again been there and this was the pattern for the next week!! By the end of the week they were emptying the bucket and only about 50 feet away from the pig pen. Beautiful!! Papa and I wondered why they weren't drawn to their siblings. We found out.
8 days after bringing them home Papa got the pigs in. We were moving the meat birds and doing evening chores when I noted out loud that 'the 2' were within 20 feet of the pig fence eating out of their bucket. Papa glanced over and finished chores. Well before I knew what he was about he had the pig fence moved around, singing softly the whole time, and before my very eyes he simply kept on singing and penned those 2 strays in!! He then asked me to feed the pigs in the pen, that had tamed down a lot that week. So I did found some really smelly slop and fed it. Then with me on the outside of the electric netting and Papa on the inside we tried for almost 40 minutes to get 'those 2' to cross that line!!! We couldn't turn the fence on and leave them because it was sided on one side with a hog wire fence and would just ground out. So we had to get them over with the other 6 so we could close the fence and turn it back on. Pigs are smart. These two remembered. They remembered that line (the fence was gone) and would NOT cross it. They could smell the food. They could see and smell their siblings less then 20 feet away (at times it was 1 foot away!!) but they would NOT cross that line. I told Papa afterwards that they are sure fence trained for never having been in one!! Finally I hopped in the fence as well and some of the 6 came over to investigate and after several tries 'the 2' finally followed the crowd and walked in to the pen. Papa and I controlled our need to panic to get the fence on and fixed the fence and when it was completed Papa RAN to turn it on and they've behaved themselves nicely ever since. And there you have it. The PIG story.
Update. The pigs are all fairly tame now. They are still in the same pen and still digging happily. They come to the fence now to see us when we go to see them :) And no longer rush away right away when we go in the pen. The '2' were a bit skinnier then the '6' but now we can't tell which ones are which. Yesterday when I fed them they came within touching distance of me. That's a 1st and a welcome sign. We are planing on breeding two of these pigs and will pick the best of the bunch this fall. There are 4 big ones (from one litter) 3 medium ones (could be from one or several litters) and one small one. They all have white feet and noses and some markings which is a Berkshire breed standard.
Bindy has forgiven us and has accepted the new arrivals. Sometimes I wonder who is the boss around here. Me or HER!!!
Well we had the pen we wanted to put the pigs in set up beforehand. In fact we'd had chickens and sheep in it for several weeks. It was a electric netting fence around the area that the cow had used last winter for her hay area. We wanted them to till it up for us. Well we backed up to the pen, over the side of the fence and put the window down opened the tailgate and off they went. 123456 little piggies in the pen. I RAN to turn it on about the same time Bindy (the cow) realized that we had done it again!! The crazy humans are always bringing home stray critters that she disapproves of. PIGS. Bindy dislikes new critters and BOTH Papa and I realized later that we should have tied her up before hand. We also should have checked the fence. Unfortunately we did not. HEY chickens and sheep had already been in it!! Well it had also rained the whole night throughout the day before and left the posts in the clay a bit loose. Too loose. Much too loose. Bindy started to BAWL at the top of her lungs.. and she has good lungs. By this point the fence was on. I can run fast when needed :) 4 of the pigs hit the fence and decided that it hurt and they'd stay away from it. Another thing that we had not realized.. or maybe I had not realized was that these pigs had almost NO contact with humans at all their whole lives. And they'd had the run of 5 acres. Not just a little patch. The other two pigs hit the fence again and again until it flipped over and they raced under it... into the chicken pen. Also electric netting. Also a rained on fence. Chickens don't care. Pigs care!! Well we were settling the 4 down and watching them and trying to get Bindy to shut up.. she did eventually. She's almost as well behaved as some dogs when it comes to bawling. We're always yelling at her. Anyway we thought that the two escapees were in with the chickens and when we went to look for them they were GONE!!! Two black and white pigs off in the bush at 8pm. Good luck!! NOT!! Actually it was still light enough out that we searched for an hour and a half before giving up and going inside. Papa saw them twice in this 90 minutes. He also said that he was walking behind them and they would stop in the bush so quietly that he kept on walking right by and then they would turn and RUN away!! (it was almost dark) I didn't see them once. They were bush trained. Over the next week we realized how well. That night I called the people who own the patch of land that is behind our lease. I told them to be on the lookout. For all we knew they would keep on going. Our neighbor said she doubted they would last the night. Both Papa and I knew they would.
It was a relief the next morning when I went for a quick walkabout to hear pig grunting by my pond and when I peaked though the bush to see the piglets standing stock still in the middle of a bush road. They were so stealthily that they did not MOVE for several minutes waiting to see what I would do. I did nothing and went home happy they were alive and that we had a chance to get them back. When I got back to the house I called Papa at work to relieve his mind as well. Well now we knew where they were but now to get them home with their sisters. This same morning I got a phone call. They had our last two pigs ready for us. There was some muddling and it turned out we got all 8 of ours now instead of having to wait for the next batch to be ready. Better for us for sure. So I called Papa again at work and we made plans to go again that night and get the last 2 pigs. This time we used the dog crate and only Papa and J, L and E ended up going as the peat moss came the same night and I needed to be here for that. That trip was uneventful and the 2 new pigs (also gilts) settled right in inside the crate and they were asleep when they got home!! Papa put a pig in each arm and walked over to the pig pen. One of the two screamed almost the whole way and both Papa and I half wished that this would call the other two out of the bush. But it did not. The two new gilts settled right in and there was no problems at all. Bindy was tied up at the neighbors piece of grass; we do learn :P This batch of pigs was so wild that they huddled for almost 2 days in one area, running when ever we came within shouting distance. Not that we shouted.. just looked.
Well, over the next 24 hours we realized, with discreet checks, that the 2 bush pigs were not going anywhere. They stayed within a certain distance of where we assume they had found a hole in a slash pile to sleep in. We considered building a electric fence around them, dismissing this because of the noise the chain saw would have made while making a path around them to even get a fence up. The area where they were (yes we got them in) was part of our lease right behind our place. Marshy, wet, close to the pond for water and totally overgrown with 2 inch poplar trees and bush. To walk though this area it's step, step on a log, step, step on a log!! The whole way. There was NO way we could chase them so we decided to bait them. Papa got a bucket of milk and grain and I placed it close to the fence were they had found a hole. I checked this bucket 3 times that 1st day and it had not been touched. But the ground where I had seen them the 1st time was getting well tilled!! They had not been able to get to the area where the bucket was. I think it was too wet for them to walk through while thinking. They raced over it that 1st night but had better sense the next day. SO I moved the bucket. The next morning, day 2, they had eaten the grain off the ground in front of the bucket but not put their heads in the bucket. I moved it away from the fence a bit and checked it again later. Later they had again been there and this was the pattern for the next week!! By the end of the week they were emptying the bucket and only about 50 feet away from the pig pen. Beautiful!! Papa and I wondered why they weren't drawn to their siblings. We found out.
8 days after bringing them home Papa got the pigs in. We were moving the meat birds and doing evening chores when I noted out loud that 'the 2' were within 20 feet of the pig fence eating out of their bucket. Papa glanced over and finished chores. Well before I knew what he was about he had the pig fence moved around, singing softly the whole time, and before my very eyes he simply kept on singing and penned those 2 strays in!! He then asked me to feed the pigs in the pen, that had tamed down a lot that week. So I did found some really smelly slop and fed it. Then with me on the outside of the electric netting and Papa on the inside we tried for almost 40 minutes to get 'those 2' to cross that line!!! We couldn't turn the fence on and leave them because it was sided on one side with a hog wire fence and would just ground out. So we had to get them over with the other 6 so we could close the fence and turn it back on. Pigs are smart. These two remembered. They remembered that line (the fence was gone) and would NOT cross it. They could smell the food. They could see and smell their siblings less then 20 feet away (at times it was 1 foot away!!) but they would NOT cross that line. I told Papa afterwards that they are sure fence trained for never having been in one!! Finally I hopped in the fence as well and some of the 6 came over to investigate and after several tries 'the 2' finally followed the crowd and walked in to the pen. Papa and I controlled our need to panic to get the fence on and fixed the fence and when it was completed Papa RAN to turn it on and they've behaved themselves nicely ever since. And there you have it. The PIG story.
Update. The pigs are all fairly tame now. They are still in the same pen and still digging happily. They come to the fence now to see us when we go to see them :) And no longer rush away right away when we go in the pen. The '2' were a bit skinnier then the '6' but now we can't tell which ones are which. Yesterday when I fed them they came within touching distance of me. That's a 1st and a welcome sign. We are planing on breeding two of these pigs and will pick the best of the bunch this fall. There are 4 big ones (from one litter) 3 medium ones (could be from one or several litters) and one small one. They all have white feet and noses and some markings which is a Berkshire breed standard.
Bindy has forgiven us and has accepted the new arrivals. Sometimes I wonder who is the boss around here. Me or HER!!!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Raised beds.
The raised beds are under some trees, mostly poplar, between the house and the road. It goes road, bunch of thick trees, old used to be driveway (actually new but un-needed and un-used), then this patch of trees with the raise beds in them, then a patch of lawn, the driveway and the house. That brown line you see on the right with green on either side is the driveway. Our house is off to the right. Our 5 acres is very long and not very wide so things seem to stretch out. :) The house you see in the top picture is the neighbor!! The 3 poles laying on the ground are an idea for a triangle shaped bed that may or may not happen next year.... :) I'm not sure I like it. 
This one in the middle is the potato bed and it's already planted. I put a layer of cow manure down, then a layer of peat moss and then planted my potatoes and covered them with more peat moss. The idea is to keep filling the bed with peat moss as the plants grow and the potatoes are suppose to have a bigger yield with less square footage. We'll see how it works.
Here is the inside of one of my yet to be filled raised beds. I lined it with cardboard to hopefully keep the moisture in. The floor is several layers of newsprint and a light layer of shavings. This is one of the ones that is line a line of three. If you look close you can actually see all 4 raised beds in this picture. On the right you can see part of the biggest bed. Some trees that are shading this area will be taken out. Papa and I are one a black spruce tree clean up mission these days.Monday, June 1, 2009
AHHHHhhhh!! Time to write and hopefully a good enough connection to post as well. Besides being crazy busy (more on that in a minute) our Internet doesn't like to work well while the wind is blowing and it is BLOWING!! Thankfully we don't get as much wind as the people around us thanks to our protective trees but it still affects the connection. This will change when we get the antenna up on the roof. We had to take it down to put the roof up and it's a bit tricky to get it up now. I've waited and waited to post so that I could put some pictures up as well but it won't work so I'll try and post some later!!
Well after the Griggs visit Papa and I started on some projects around the place that we've been wanting to do for awhile. Raised Beds, you know for growing things in :) (not everyone knows this I've found. I've gotten several blank looks recently). When we clear out trees we keep the straightest ones and cut them off at 5 meters and pile them up for later use. Some of these will hopefully one day be a pole fence. They also make great raised beds. Papa used the chain saw and I stacked and moved the poles over to the raised bed area. Working together smoothly as a team in took us about 2 hours to make 4 raised beds. The longest one is nearest the road and at 6 meters long will hold lots of veggies. Then there are two 5 meter beds with a 2 meter bed between them all in a row on the the house side of the long one. Eventually I would like another 2, also closer to the house, but we decided to wait to do them until next year. The next day the children picked up all the tiny wood pieces and threw them on a handy burn pile (not lite) while I lined the beds with cardboard and put layers of newspaper on the ground inside the beds and finally a light cover of shavings on the newspaper to keep the paper in place. The idea is that the cardboard around the sides of the raised bed will keep the dirt and moisture in the bed and the newspaper and shavings will keep the small trees and grass from growing up through the raised beds. The small 2 meter raised bed is for potatoes. I'm going to try stacking them and keep on adding dirt in the raised bed as they get taller and hope to get a good crop of potatoes. Well shall see I guess. Now we are waiting for the dirt. Peat moss actually. From a local swamp which we will mix with manure and lime and sand to fill the raised beds with. Then I will be able to plant them!! They are set up in such a way that I should be able to extend our very short season by protecting them from frost with frost blankets and plastic. Sort of a mini green house. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
Raspberries. The neighbor down the road called and said she had some extras and would I like some!! I jumped at it as I've been wanting to move my raspberry patch and I finally found the perfect spot!! We live in a row of 4 five acre parcels and we are the second one. So we have neighbors on both sides. Our house is farther back then either of theirs so we don't see much of them but the one on the town side has his shop right in line with our house. It's fairly cleaned out along his fence line (these two pieces were originally one piece). So for the last 4 years we can see most of his house and path and stuff that he has lined up along the fence. Not really a big deal but now we have a brand new line of raspberries on our side of the fence with enough room to pick both sides right along this fence line!!! In a few years I hope to not have to see his stuff at all!!
Clearing. Yup we are clearing more of our 5 acres to get it into some kind of usable land. The front piece between the house and the road has never been good for much. We have run pigs through it 3 or 4 times but the black spruce is so thick and it's so damp in there that even the pigs have been able to change it very little. A few years ago we thinned the one corner considerably but even that was so blocked by the other trees that grass isn't even growing there!! To little sunlight. SO Papa and I finally agreed what to do with it and now we are cutting out all the black spruce leaving only a roughly 60 foot line of trees beside the road and another 50 feet or so between us and the neighbor on that side. I have a feeling we will be planting something along that fence line as well. Because it is so wet in this piece the idea is to eventually have a pond there. The spring run off all runs to this point and we have a swamp all spring and often a chunk of summer!! If we could get that water to drain into our pond instead we could have a pond and no more swamp!!
Fish!! We have a small man made pond at the very back of our piece. Its about 30 feet across and quite deep. We're not sure how deep. We also have a lagoon. Lagoons are mosquito heavens which breed bugs by the hundreds. While speaking to Papa's mom one visit we came to the conclusion that fish could probably live in both the pond and the lagoon. Fish, I got 30 three inch feeder goldfish, would hopefully eat enough of the mosquitoes eggs to keep the population down and add to the farm by the lack of slapping this would bring!! Never mind that fish are fun to watch and add something to ponds in just enjoyment alone. So far in the few times I've been down to check on them I've seen fish almost every time. But yesterday while chasing pigs (wait for it, it'll come) Papa noticed a pair of ducks living in and around the pond. Hummm...
Lease. We have 5 acres here and originally we were hoping for a 1/4 section (140 acres?????) but our financing and our lack of credit rating in this country (did you know that credit does NOT cross borders?? ) made that impossible. So we decided we'd buy 5 acres and work it to the best of our ability. And then when and if we got to the point where we could use it all completely we'd sell and move to a bigger piece. Well our neighbors, the raspberry ones :), have a piece behind us that is not in use and has not been touched since it was logged of poplar 6 years ago. Papa actually haul those logs to the mill. So Papa put a idea out to them last summer and this spring we finalized it. They have no use for roughly 35 of their 57 acres. They have 2 horses and want only enough to feed their horse all summer and a winter pasture so they don't have feed hardly any hay. The problem was that they needed part of it fenced so they could use the winter area. So in exchange for fencing this area before winter in we have complete rights to the rest of the 35 acres that they are not using for as many years as they live there.. or we do. What a DEAL!!! We jumped at it. Actually we could hardly believe our luck. Really it's not luck at all. It's the Master and Creator of All who has blessed us!! Afterwards Papa and I were both in the good sort of shock that involves dreams and plans and thankful worship!!
Chicks. The meat birds are doing wonderfully and growing like crazy. They LOVE the milk mixture we are feeding them and really need to go out on grass. The weather has been so cold and nasty and windy that we are hoping for some good weather so we can kick them out of the barn (they now have the whole barn). The death count is now 7. 2 layers and 5 meat birds.
Strawberries. The strawberry bed Papa made for me last year still had some holes which needed plants so I got some more in the 'city' and planted 10 more. Tristar. Papa remembers this kind as a kid and assures me they are excellent producers. I'm drooling just thinking about it!! YUM!!!!
Garden has been covered with black landscaping fabric for several weeks now and the kids and I planted some corn in between the rows of fabric. I went along and made the holes, E holding the container of seeds, L putting the seeds in the holes and J covering them up. (this is the SLOWEST way I have ever planted anything but we sure had FUN!!) I also planted 2 rows of beans. The rest of the garden is for whatever doesn't fit in the raised beds and the pumpkin plants the kids are growing. Speaking of pumpkin plants. The horrible affliction I have of killing all plants in the house has not applied to them ( or to the mothers day flowers which are still on the table looking nice. Not the roses they are just done.) and they are thriving and BLOOMING!! I've been taking a Q-tip and fertilizing the flowers as they open. They will go out into the garden soon.
Greenhouse. The greenhouse is on the list for today. Yesterday the children and I went to town and bought tomato, pepper, and other plants for the green house/garden. They are all in the green house awaiting me!! :) (The green house is now totally planted I finished it today. 9 cukes, 10 tomatoes, 10 peppers: hot to sweet, lettuce, spinach and dill: trying to get a jump on these as the raised beds are still not going, and I think that's all. Marigolds. It looks great!)
Pigs. We have gotten 6 of our 8 pigs and will pick the other 2 up tonight. This subject requires a much longer blog then I have time for and I will write it another time.... maybe when it's finished. Like totally. :) Keep your eyes peeled!! (We have gotten these last two but still only have 6 penned :)
Caught up. Well now you are completely caught up on the work we've been up too. We've also been having some fun. We've rented 2 videos for the children in the last 2 weeks and they beg and do watch them regularly. Papa and I have also had a few movie nights which is relaxing and enjoyable. Sort of like a date where you don't leave the house. :) We've also been enjoying the weather when it's nice and when it's not. We've had a few soaker rains which is nice this time of year. The rain hitting the tin roof is music to our ears. I've been taking the children bike riding on the days that are nice enough and when there is no mud. It's fun and we all like it and it tires them out for nap time. J rides his bike and I ride mine pulling the cart with R in it. L rides his trike to the end of the driveway and then runs to the black tire on the side of the road. E runs to the end of the driveway and then rides the rest of the way until we get to the driveway again. Then she runs home. L rides in the cart til we hit the black tire again and then he runs to his trike and drives it home. It's not perfect but it works :) The kids are playing outside as much as possible and are loving every minute of it. They are filthy daily and have a great time!! I make them strip off outside on the porch and bring them in and wash up!! L's pockets and ears are always full of sand!! E has beat up knees and the bugs love her and it shows!! She doesn't seem to mind and never complains but she has 2x as many bites as the rest of us. Poor kid!!
All and all everything is busy but good here on the Griggs Farm. We are daily blessed with the joys of spring and now summer. And loving it!!! Thank You Lord!!! On the way to home Church this last Sunday we saw a cow and her twin calves running along side the high way!! A cow MOOSE!!! Very neat. The children all saw it and were amazed!!! The calves were just days old and all legs and heads. It's amazing that they can even run at that age. The cow moose was very skinny and patchy but the calves were perfect!! Too bad I forgot my CAMERA!!!! Sorry guys!!
Well after the Griggs visit Papa and I started on some projects around the place that we've been wanting to do for awhile. Raised Beds, you know for growing things in :) (not everyone knows this I've found. I've gotten several blank looks recently). When we clear out trees we keep the straightest ones and cut them off at 5 meters and pile them up for later use. Some of these will hopefully one day be a pole fence. They also make great raised beds. Papa used the chain saw and I stacked and moved the poles over to the raised bed area. Working together smoothly as a team in took us about 2 hours to make 4 raised beds. The longest one is nearest the road and at 6 meters long will hold lots of veggies. Then there are two 5 meter beds with a 2 meter bed between them all in a row on the the house side of the long one. Eventually I would like another 2, also closer to the house, but we decided to wait to do them until next year. The next day the children picked up all the tiny wood pieces and threw them on a handy burn pile (not lite) while I lined the beds with cardboard and put layers of newspaper on the ground inside the beds and finally a light cover of shavings on the newspaper to keep the paper in place. The idea is that the cardboard around the sides of the raised bed will keep the dirt and moisture in the bed and the newspaper and shavings will keep the small trees and grass from growing up through the raised beds. The small 2 meter raised bed is for potatoes. I'm going to try stacking them and keep on adding dirt in the raised bed as they get taller and hope to get a good crop of potatoes. Well shall see I guess. Now we are waiting for the dirt. Peat moss actually. From a local swamp which we will mix with manure and lime and sand to fill the raised beds with. Then I will be able to plant them!! They are set up in such a way that I should be able to extend our very short season by protecting them from frost with frost blankets and plastic. Sort of a mini green house. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
Raspberries. The neighbor down the road called and said she had some extras and would I like some!! I jumped at it as I've been wanting to move my raspberry patch and I finally found the perfect spot!! We live in a row of 4 five acre parcels and we are the second one. So we have neighbors on both sides. Our house is farther back then either of theirs so we don't see much of them but the one on the town side has his shop right in line with our house. It's fairly cleaned out along his fence line (these two pieces were originally one piece). So for the last 4 years we can see most of his house and path and stuff that he has lined up along the fence. Not really a big deal but now we have a brand new line of raspberries on our side of the fence with enough room to pick both sides right along this fence line!!! In a few years I hope to not have to see his stuff at all!!
Clearing. Yup we are clearing more of our 5 acres to get it into some kind of usable land. The front piece between the house and the road has never been good for much. We have run pigs through it 3 or 4 times but the black spruce is so thick and it's so damp in there that even the pigs have been able to change it very little. A few years ago we thinned the one corner considerably but even that was so blocked by the other trees that grass isn't even growing there!! To little sunlight. SO Papa and I finally agreed what to do with it and now we are cutting out all the black spruce leaving only a roughly 60 foot line of trees beside the road and another 50 feet or so between us and the neighbor on that side. I have a feeling we will be planting something along that fence line as well. Because it is so wet in this piece the idea is to eventually have a pond there. The spring run off all runs to this point and we have a swamp all spring and often a chunk of summer!! If we could get that water to drain into our pond instead we could have a pond and no more swamp!!
Fish!! We have a small man made pond at the very back of our piece. Its about 30 feet across and quite deep. We're not sure how deep. We also have a lagoon. Lagoons are mosquito heavens which breed bugs by the hundreds. While speaking to Papa's mom one visit we came to the conclusion that fish could probably live in both the pond and the lagoon. Fish, I got 30 three inch feeder goldfish, would hopefully eat enough of the mosquitoes eggs to keep the population down and add to the farm by the lack of slapping this would bring!! Never mind that fish are fun to watch and add something to ponds in just enjoyment alone. So far in the few times I've been down to check on them I've seen fish almost every time. But yesterday while chasing pigs (wait for it, it'll come) Papa noticed a pair of ducks living in and around the pond. Hummm...
Lease. We have 5 acres here and originally we were hoping for a 1/4 section (140 acres?????) but our financing and our lack of credit rating in this country (did you know that credit does NOT cross borders?? ) made that impossible. So we decided we'd buy 5 acres and work it to the best of our ability. And then when and if we got to the point where we could use it all completely we'd sell and move to a bigger piece. Well our neighbors, the raspberry ones :), have a piece behind us that is not in use and has not been touched since it was logged of poplar 6 years ago. Papa actually haul those logs to the mill. So Papa put a idea out to them last summer and this spring we finalized it. They have no use for roughly 35 of their 57 acres. They have 2 horses and want only enough to feed their horse all summer and a winter pasture so they don't have feed hardly any hay. The problem was that they needed part of it fenced so they could use the winter area. So in exchange for fencing this area before winter in we have complete rights to the rest of the 35 acres that they are not using for as many years as they live there.. or we do. What a DEAL!!! We jumped at it. Actually we could hardly believe our luck. Really it's not luck at all. It's the Master and Creator of All who has blessed us!! Afterwards Papa and I were both in the good sort of shock that involves dreams and plans and thankful worship!!
Chicks. The meat birds are doing wonderfully and growing like crazy. They LOVE the milk mixture we are feeding them and really need to go out on grass. The weather has been so cold and nasty and windy that we are hoping for some good weather so we can kick them out of the barn (they now have the whole barn). The death count is now 7. 2 layers and 5 meat birds.
Strawberries. The strawberry bed Papa made for me last year still had some holes which needed plants so I got some more in the 'city' and planted 10 more. Tristar. Papa remembers this kind as a kid and assures me they are excellent producers. I'm drooling just thinking about it!! YUM!!!!
Garden has been covered with black landscaping fabric for several weeks now and the kids and I planted some corn in between the rows of fabric. I went along and made the holes, E holding the container of seeds, L putting the seeds in the holes and J covering them up. (this is the SLOWEST way I have ever planted anything but we sure had FUN!!) I also planted 2 rows of beans. The rest of the garden is for whatever doesn't fit in the raised beds and the pumpkin plants the kids are growing. Speaking of pumpkin plants. The horrible affliction I have of killing all plants in the house has not applied to them ( or to the mothers day flowers which are still on the table looking nice. Not the roses they are just done.) and they are thriving and BLOOMING!! I've been taking a Q-tip and fertilizing the flowers as they open. They will go out into the garden soon.
Greenhouse. The greenhouse is on the list for today. Yesterday the children and I went to town and bought tomato, pepper, and other plants for the green house/garden. They are all in the green house awaiting me!! :) (The green house is now totally planted I finished it today. 9 cukes, 10 tomatoes, 10 peppers: hot to sweet, lettuce, spinach and dill: trying to get a jump on these as the raised beds are still not going, and I think that's all. Marigolds. It looks great!)
Pigs. We have gotten 6 of our 8 pigs and will pick the other 2 up tonight. This subject requires a much longer blog then I have time for and I will write it another time.... maybe when it's finished. Like totally. :) Keep your eyes peeled!! (We have gotten these last two but still only have 6 penned :)
Caught up. Well now you are completely caught up on the work we've been up too. We've also been having some fun. We've rented 2 videos for the children in the last 2 weeks and they beg and do watch them regularly. Papa and I have also had a few movie nights which is relaxing and enjoyable. Sort of like a date where you don't leave the house. :) We've also been enjoying the weather when it's nice and when it's not. We've had a few soaker rains which is nice this time of year. The rain hitting the tin roof is music to our ears. I've been taking the children bike riding on the days that are nice enough and when there is no mud. It's fun and we all like it and it tires them out for nap time. J rides his bike and I ride mine pulling the cart with R in it. L rides his trike to the end of the driveway and then runs to the black tire on the side of the road. E runs to the end of the driveway and then rides the rest of the way until we get to the driveway again. Then she runs home. L rides in the cart til we hit the black tire again and then he runs to his trike and drives it home. It's not perfect but it works :) The kids are playing outside as much as possible and are loving every minute of it. They are filthy daily and have a great time!! I make them strip off outside on the porch and bring them in and wash up!! L's pockets and ears are always full of sand!! E has beat up knees and the bugs love her and it shows!! She doesn't seem to mind and never complains but she has 2x as many bites as the rest of us. Poor kid!!
All and all everything is busy but good here on the Griggs Farm. We are daily blessed with the joys of spring and now summer. And loving it!!! Thank You Lord!!! On the way to home Church this last Sunday we saw a cow and her twin calves running along side the high way!! A cow MOOSE!!! Very neat. The children all saw it and were amazed!!! The calves were just days old and all legs and heads. It's amazing that they can even run at that age. The cow moose was very skinny and patchy but the calves were perfect!! Too bad I forgot my CAMERA!!!! Sorry guys!!
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