well…we think that one or two of our chicks believe that violet is “mom.”
there are one or two chicks who refuse to go into the to coop at night and instead hang out with violet grazing. we believe that she roosts in the barn, near violet.
this picture was taken this morning, before the chicks were let out of the coop. obviously that chick spent the night outside the coop. with the sheep.
for the first year living up here, we did nothing except try to plant a garden (didn’t happen) and had a baby (adam!).
that was a lot for us, so we took it easy the fall and winter of our first year. but plans started picking up the following spring and we dove head-first into homesteading our little plot of land out here in the rolling hills of western pennsylvania!
that next spring, we ordered and DROVE to ohio to pick up our 15 egg-laying chicks. they were still wet when we picked them up (from hatching!) and we brought them back to our home, set them up with a warm brooder box in our laundry room and watched them for hours (kenny even got up twice in the night to check on them!).
we even had a garden that year, that was eaten to the ground by groundhog, but at least we planted and tended a lovely garden!
fast forward to this summer and we’ve found some balance to the whole “hobby-farming” endeavor. we have a new barn with an actual fenced in 1.8 acres. within that fence, barnyard politics rule…not the rules we thought to set up. the donkey is in charge of the five sheep and the two goats. the chickens keep their distance and the cat sneaks some water when the donkey isn’t looking (and then makes her way back out of the pasture fence).
the bees died out this winter and we didn’t get more, we tried to get 10 chickens in our freezer, but only consumed two (gave the rest away). the best laid plans…and all that jazz.
our garden is booming this year thanks to a very patient and green-thumbed kenny. the beans were a huge crop, the limas and edameme are just about to pop, and the tomatoes are all lovely and blight-free this year! we have a cutting garden again (zinnias!) and we had fresh lettuce and broccoli and herbs and will be picking some beautiful butternut squash (for soup!) soon. not to mention the decorative gourds for the dining room table fall decor (that i won’t be spending money on!).
we’ve been eating farm fresh eggs for years now, and i can tell you they are superior and worth the effort o keep hens just for that. last night, we had our first dinner of roasted herbed whole chicken that were raised, killed, and cooked by our own hands and it was good…but not WOW! the drumsticks were tough (probably because the donkey love to chase these chickens and they got a LOT of exercise!), and the breast meat, although large in quantity, were just as tasty as the herbed butter we cooked them in. what was satisfying was the fact that we can now, if we ever need to, raise and harvest our own chicken.
i am glad for the opportunity to learn and teach this way. i’m learning just as much as our boys are, and that is satisfying enough!
1. my “little” brother is in town. he spoke at a conference in TheBigCity and now he’s spending a few days up here in the boondocks. Rowan, Sawyer and Adam are monopolozing his time by climbing on his shoulders, coloring him pictures and cards, and planning out his entire schedule. Yesterday, they took him to Playthings Etc their favorite store ever, and the swimming pool, where we were only one of two families there (warm and sunny! where were all the people?). today they plan on getting in 18 holes at the local mini golf ice cream stand. They love their uncles.
2. we spent yesterday morning processing two of our meat chickens. kenny didn’t let the boys watch the actual “act” but they were there watching the plucking, the disembowling, and the cleaning without being grossed out at all. i was proud of them. we have two gorgeous chickens in our fridge right now, and we’re roasting them tonight with fresh rosemary and butter, corn on the cob, and a big ol’ salad. the farmer friend who helped us stated that the birds looked great – not overly full of yellow fat, which means they had a good eating life (free-rangers!).
3. if we put all the expenses we’ve had since getting these chickens, it comes to approximately $16 a chicken. totally not worth the money, time, work…but it was worth the experience!
4. the boys have been collecting butterflies all summer (running around with a net, catching the “pretty ones” and then giving them to kenny who puts them in a jar with rubbing alcohol until they are done moving). we have a pretty good collection now, and “uncle dan” has added to our interest by finding monarch butterfly eggs and baby caterpillars on our milkweed from our front yard. we now have a gallon jar of baby caterpillars and one egg, lots of fresh milkweed and will be raising and releasing monarchs over the next few weeks. endless fun! if you’re interested, here’s some information!
5. if you have any advice on being at the beach with a young children, please send it my way!
6. i have that nervous feeling of “new schoolyear jitters” that i haven’t had in years. i never thought teachers got it as well!
7. here’s a great free resource for your family – whether you homeschool or not, it’s a fun little video that can help you and your students see the growth of this country.
it’s so easy to get so caught up in the frenzy of the technology-rich world we live in today. i admit to being just as caught up in it as the next one.
as the sun shines warmer in this season, i’m reminded again of one of the reasons we wanted our little nook in the country: to slow down.
certainly we all know that raising children doesn’t really allow us to sit back, enjoy our the quiet for hours on end. but that’s not the kind of slowing down i’m talking about right now. this is what i intend to do as i try to make the summer months last forever (before being thrown into the cold, harsh winter that makes me want to stay in bed all day long!):
read from books more, and less from my computer. i get lots of news sources read in the morning and at night. i don’t want the dull light of my laptop screen to steal my senses of the magic found in novels, historical books, biblical reference books that line our shelves. i need to tune out the LOUDNESS of today’s current events and just hear the whisper of it in the background. i’m going to immerse myself in reading printed paper. probably enjoyed with a cool drink sitting in the sun on the deck.
spend more time in the pasture. i should really do my share of work mucking stalls. my dad and kenny do all of that work now. i need to get my hands dirty and help them out. i’m really good at straightening up, mowing the lawn, making the outside pretty. but i’m not so good (yet!) about dealing with the muck. and 8 animals makes a lot of muck!
make lemonade. no, life hasn’t give me lemons. but i want to let the kids remember summer for cool, tangy drinks on the deck after a long hot run around the yard. we rarely have anything but milk in the fridge (not even juice!) but on these hotter than hot days, i’m giving the kids lemonade. and not from a mix. i’m learning myself how to make real, honest lemony-lemonade.
if i spend all of my free moments this summer doing all those three things every single day, i think i will have successfully slowed down. and then perhaps i’ll be ready to dive into the crazy schedule that is “back-to-school” followed directly by the Holidays.
okay, so it’s not really trouble, but we’re learning from our mistakes lately…(click on the images for a larger view).
we decided to let cosmo and her little lamb (who the boys have named tommy, but we are encouraging them to actually not name him…for reasons we’ll explain to them later. we actually have already explained it to them, but not since the lamb’s birth because it’s too emotional a subject for rowan and sawyer at this point. rowan asked me why we shouldn’t name the lamb to which we replied, “because he’s a boy” to which rowan replied, “but we’re boys, and you named us!” smart kid.) out to pasture with the other animals. what we didn’t realize was that we should have done a formal introduction between donkey and lamb before just putting them in the same pasture together.
you see, this donkey named geneva is very particular about who she keeps company with, and her snotty attitude comes shining through when she isn’t given say in who comes into her pasture. or so it seems….
the reality is that she saw this foreign little guy running around her pasture and saw him as a threat. she hadn’t noticed him until that moment (since he and cosmo have been separated from the rest of the animals, giving them time to bond) and wanted him OUT. so she attacked him – kicked him down. fortunately, i was in the pasture with them and as i yelled at her (ahem…never yell at a donkey. it’s as though you’re speaking a different language), i ran to the lamb, picked him up and got her the heck out of geneva’s way.
since that moment, we’ve been trying to slowly introduce the lamb to geneva, letting her know that he’s a good little guy, not a threat to her other sheep, and she needs to start protecting him. not an easy job, but we’re making baby steps. i’m glad my parents are here to help us out.
meanwhile…isn’t the lamb just the cutest thing ever? his bleating is so small I can’t believe cosmo can hear him call back when she yells for him. cosmo’s mama instincts have kicked in 100%. she’s doing a fantastic job with him – she even got ME out of the way of him tonight as we were putting them back into the barn. she’s getting more and more protective of him.
iris, cosmo’s other suffolk-cross friend, has taken quite a liking to the little guy as well. Iris didn’t like being separated from cosmo, so we kept them int he same pasture today, and put the other two sheep and the goats with geneva in the lower pasture. iris and cosmo were seen grazing, napping, and walking around together all day with the lamb.
to add to all the donkey craziness, dune, the brown goat got out of our new fence TWICE this morning. We’ve since fixed the fence, so that shouldn’t happen again.
this little lamb has caused such a HUGE ruckus to our farm…it’s just like bringing a brand new itty baby home in your family. well, okay, it’s NOTHING like that…but we’re all exhausted!
they are cashmere goats and word got around that we had some room in our barn, i guess. the spinning and farming community is a small one, and i’m so very appreciative of that. we heard of their need to be adopted a few weeks ago and yesterday, we met them.
these ladies are coming from a local alpaca farm. wini, the farmer, has discovered that she is allergic to cashmere, so she’s been looking for a home for these two little ladies. we’re happy to oblige.
i have never been a fan of goats. i think sheep are so much more interesting. however, these are CASHMERE goats. we comb their coat out when they start to shed (around february -when the daylight begins to return earlier), spin the cashmere fiber and voila! i have my own skein of 100% cashmere yarn. and look at those natural colors. apparently, it will take a few seasons to get enough fiber to actually make something – but that will give me enough time to polish my spinning skills (or practice at least!).
the bulk of cashmere today is produced in china, and apparently the larger cashmere producers shear their goats and spin it without removing the hair from the cashmere fiber. by combing the goat, there isn’t much hair that gets mixed in with the good, soft fiber. so combing and spinning produces a softer garment. when shorn, the hair pieces (which are rough) aren’t removed and the end product isn’t nearly as soft.
our sheep, and geneva the donkey are waiting anxiously their arrival to the barn later today.
…but wow! has time gotten away from me, and i think i’m ADD now.
i just started this post and something on PBS suggested grabbing a cup of coffee and now i forgot what i was going to blog about and all i want is to make a great big tall glass of ice cold decaf iced coffee….mmmmmm…..
i’ve been spending most of my “free time” preparing lessons for the upcoming school year. i can’t stress enough how much i LOVE lesson-planning, and how much i can’t wait for our lessons to formally begin for the school year (Ifirst week in september…). if you’re interested in our schooling plans for the year, subscribe to my homeschool blog at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/smithical/ and i really hope to update it soon with our fall curriculum and update it throughout the year of all the fun we’re having!
SHEEP! we’re really enjoying having sheep under our care. daisy and violet are getting more and more used to us. if i can’t find sawyer in the house, i look outside our windows to the pasture and see him just sitting as close as can be to the sheep. when i ask him why he doesn’t tell me when he leaves the house, he answers, “i just want the sheep to get used to me! i love them, mommy!”
violet (the brown romney) eats from all of our hands and daisy (white, border leicester) lets us pet her only when inside of her shed, with violet right next to her. she really wants to like us, but she’s still a bit cautious. every time i pet them, and feel how thick their wool is getting, i get more excited about washing, preparing, and spinning their wool. i’m eager to see how it spins out…
this week is our county’s farm show and last night, we met the suffolk sheep farmers during their animal set-up. they are showing a cow, some sheep (rams, not ewes), and chickens, so they’re very busy. but they were nice enough to give us free tickets to thursday evening’s sheep sale. kenny is SO EXCITED to bring home his suffolks. i’m happy with my two “woolies”…he’ll be happy when his “meaties” are in the pasture. we hope to get a good deal on two more at the auction this week. i told him their names will be “chops” and “curry.”
kenny is proving to be a very caring sheep farmer. he spent over to an hour at a local grain mill purchasing several (like 13 to 15?) ingredients for a healthy grain mixture for the sheep. we’re very eager to grow our sheep on just pasture in the spring/summer/fall and hay in the winter, but a grain mixture is necessary for training purposes (and necessary for the ewes when they’re mating and just after lambing). in order to get the best nutrition from a grain mix for sheep, we have to be careful about the ingredients. we got full corn and oats (not chopped or rolled) and then a bunch of vitamins, minerals, and pure molasses…mixed it all up and 100 pounds later, we’re good until at least christmas! grain mills can only mix up tons at a time (and normally no less than 2 tons), so we had to purchase a small amount of the ingredients list and mix it up ourselves. it took a good part of saturday afternoon, but the sheep are now happy with their new grain mixture. we’re still mixing it with the grain mix that their old farmer brought to us as you need to ease them into any new feeding habits.
SPINNING! last week, i attended my first meeting of our county’s spinning and weaving guild. it was rather intimidating…there are some incredibly talented people in our community. the show-and-tell section of the meeting was truly inspiring: two of the women raise their own silk worms and spin their silk and make fabrics out of said spun silk! this is something that i’m not in the least interested in, but wow! who would have thought to actually spin silkworm silk by hand and then weave that into a fabric that you can make clothes from? incredible.
i’m more inspired to master the drop spindle and then move onto my spinning wheel again and get to know how it spins. right now, i have three spindles going with three different wools – one sheep wool that i washed and am drafting to spin, one alpaca wool that i received when i had a spinning lesson back this past winter, and one with some roving mom picked up for me at the local yarn shop (we’re not sure if it’s pure wool or a blend). i’m getting there…slowly!
we awoke with the sun….except there was no sun, just lots of clouds and a steady, heavy rain. the sheep arrived at 10:15 this morning, during the heaviest of downpours and we’ve been captivated ever since.
we stand inside and outside the fence, watching them frolic, graze and sit down in their abundant shade. my dad’s been having fun all day coming up with clever sheep-related bible verses. he’s cracking himself up.
daisy and violet joined us today as the first two livestock on our little hobby farm. although they aren’t technically even related, we’ve named them after daisy and voilet hilton, conjoined twins who toured the “Freak show” circuit about 100 years ago.
when kenny and i started dating, he was doing the music for Side Show. we both fell in love with the music and have always wanted to name our daughters daisy and violet one day. three sons later, we’ve decided to use the names for the beginning of our wooly flock instead.
daisy is the white border leicester and violet is the dark brown romney.
when we all left them alone around 5:30 for dinner, they both stood at the gate and bleated. they missed us. rowan thought that was so sweet.
they love the pasture. the farmer who dropped them up (and raised their parents) said it was good pasture, and we could get away with a few more. we’ll see….
the boys want so badly to feed them from their hands, but they’re still learning to trust us. here’s sawyer trying hard to be patient…
he also gave my mom some of his spun wool last week and she gifted him with his own pair of wooly (scratchy!) socks. these are all natural, not dyed wool socks. they’re incredibly scratchy, if you ask me. i’m probably the only one in the world who loves sheep, loves knitting and spinning, but doesn’t wear wool, or eat lamb.
it’s dark now. they won’t go into their shed. i’m a little afraid, but they’re doing what’s natural for them: sleeping under the stars.
here are the two lambs that will be delivered to us next weekend. (the two that are “kissing.”)
they are 3- and 4-months old and are known right now as #69 and #75. they wear their names on their ear tags. we will be naming these lambs because they won’t be slaughtered for meat – they’re going to be the beginning of our wool-producing flock.
over the first few weeks, we’ll be learning how to handle them, and will be hopefully halter-training them with the boys so that they’ll be just as comfortable with little humans as they will be with their big humans.
the farmers we got them from sent us home with spun wool for my mom, a pound of ground lamb from a romney (we’ll be grilling it tonight as burgers), and a huge garbage bag full of sheared wool from one of their romney sheep. i hope to begin washing it this week (when the sun comes back out!) and will document the process so that i won’t forget. it’s been fun doing the research, figuring out when to buy the right tools for the entire process, and now i’m ready to get my hands into it.
kenny and i are throwing around names…rowan and sawyer want to name them after themselves and i overheard sawyer telling his friend last night, “we’re only getting girl sheep because my mom wants the sheep. i don’t even know why.”
do you remember this picture?
