New Farm Baby

We have a sweet new calf!  Florence finally blessed us with a strong healthy heifer calf last week.  After weeks of worrying she had her calf with no problems.  Florence came to us from a grass dairy and seems to be doing well,  we have been milking for a week and she is producing well on very little feed.  We are transitioning to a full fodder feed system and I really think she will be our star producer.  Now to name this little one!

Finding my pot of gold...

If you look closely you can see a very faint rainbow in this photo.  Farming can be a bit like this at times, you really have to look for the beauty.  We have had our fair share of ups and downs in our journey.  With this life you never really know what the day will bring, I have gone in the pasture to find the blessing of new life and on the flip side I have left the pasture devastated from loss.  I always knew that this would be difficult, you always hear about how much work farming is, but someone forgot to tell me how heart wrenching it can be.   Since our arrival here we have lost 100's of chickens, lambs, a butcher steer and the hardest was when we had to put Gladys( the best milk cow in the  whole world) down.  I am faced with muddy lots, manure covered clothes, hay in my hair and dirt under my nails.  Even after all of this I am really the happiest farmer I could be, being able to be HERE to be blessed by my friendship with these animals is priceless.  I get to teach my children good animal husbandry techniques and see them really mature and appreciate those animals that they serve.  My children have a great respect for our animals and with that they teach  other children to see these animals for more than a furry thing to pet.  I love our lifestyle even when I really have to look for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Miss Florence

We bought this sweet cow from a grass dairy, she really seems to be quite calm and gets along well with the other cows.  Albert (the mini horse) pesters her to no end.  I am not sure why he picks on her so much but he loves to nibble on her ears when she is lying down and then when she gets up he nibbles on her belly.  He leaves the other cows alone but is always by Florence's side.  They are a odd site together to be sure!  I wonder how she will be when her calf comes, we should see in a few weeks.

Miss Lucy

                                                    Lucy enjoying the cool spring morning.

Piggie cuteness

Some of the young piggies out on pasture. So sweet to see them rooting about just like their mamas.

Let me out!!

The egg crew

We managed to finally figure a way to keep the predators from carrying away all our hens. We turned one of the many grain bins into a hen house. So far it has worked beautifully. I go out in the morning feed, water and collect eggs. I let the hens free range after lunch and I collect eggs again, they get the afternoon to catch bugs and eat grass. We are still training the hens to go in at night about half of the 260 have the hang of it and the other get a nightly escort back to safety. We have been getting about 10-12 dozen eggs a day, the hens are just about 23 weeks old and are not at full production. I have been pleased with the eggs, so far we have a few hens in the old hen house that are producing double yolk eggs almost everyday. Hopefully the predators will stay away!