Saturday, May 4, 2013
Well that was it, the last straw. The end of my patience and emotional tolerance. Yesterday when I was at work dogs/coyotes? Something came, jumped the fence, squeezed through my chicken coop door and took every last chicken I own. I came home to feathers everywhere, 2 dead bodies, and one live hen hiding way up in a top corner of the hen house, breathing heavily and extremely frightened. I can't do this anymore, emotionally or financially, its too much and I can't keep up. So I am going to take a break, no meat birds ordered and I am not going to, and no more layers. We will focus on getting a fence put up and starting to raise sheep, but no more birds for a while. I am just so beside myself... I surely won't be writing for a while now. But eventually my spirits will return and I will get rid of the loose dogs in the neighbourhood, and get a massive guard dog of my own, but for a while I am gonna just lay low. Thanks folks.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Finding a fall routine....
I don't even know where to begin on all the happenings over the last few months that I havent written. A few weeks ago we lost almost my whole flock of laying hens to a dog. Dead bodies were everywhere once again. It really broke our hearts, I have decided not to replace them in the spring like I did the year before. I just can't afford to do it again, financially or mentally. I still have 10 of the 30 something, and that will be enough for us. All of my silkie chicks were locked in, thankfully, so just 2 of my original 3 hens were killed. But my rooster was the first bird I saw dead in the yard.
My White rocks did excellent with my roo's dressing at 13 lbs this year. They plucked beautifully, and had not a single sick bird all summer. The best yet! My pigs did well, all 3 dressed over 100 lbs, 2 dressed over 150. We are happy about that, we just love the good meat that comes from hard work. My lambs did really well, the ram was sold young and put on a spit, we were lucky enough to even get to go to the BBQ, it was just phenomenal. The little ewe went just before thanksgiving, she dressed over 40 lbs and the family who bought it said the meat is just excellent. I am so happy and proud of our little family farm.
We have been having trouble with a neighbour trespassing onto our back property, even had a few trees cut down back there, so we are planning on fencing most of the 20 acres for the sheep next year, as well as keeping people off the property.
My garden had its best year yet, and I know I say that every year, but I am telling the truth, it is a newer garden so it just naturally keeps improving. I also have the perk of composting the chicken manure and putting it in there too! I got at least 100 lbs of beets this year. So I pickled a good 50 litres this year, and made a whole bunch of harvard beets too. I managed to get a whole lot of beans, carrots, and peas blanched and into the freezer too. Nothing is more satisfying than sitting down to a meal of chicken, potatoes, veggies and dessert with almost 100% of the ingredients coming from my own back yard! Oh and I spoiled myself and bought a food processor this year!
Pebbles and the bassets are all doing great, Odie had a rough summer with his lupus acting up rather often, but thanks to a lovely girlfriend who lives all the way in Tennessee Odie now has a beautiful sunhat to keep the sun off his nose and eyes! The cat, Wally in case you forgot is doing well, still coming out of his shell. We had some mice sneek in this summer and Wally would catch one every other night or so. He has really impressed me and I think that I actually like him! But don't tell anyone!
Hubby and boys are all doing great, they all work so hard around here. We put a new steel roof on our house this summer, (dark green) I just love it! We managed to get the boat into the water a couple of times, host our annual fall bbq, go to a couple of other bbqs, and had good times with both family and friends. What a lovely 2012 it has been!
I will get back to my weekly routine now that its fall, I have some great stories in mind, and a heart full of love to share. So till next time folks, please remember to adopt don't shop, and spay and neuter your pets! And if you have a black cat please keep him indoors with Halloween coming in a few short days. Happy Halloween 2012!
My White rocks did excellent with my roo's dressing at 13 lbs this year. They plucked beautifully, and had not a single sick bird all summer. The best yet! My pigs did well, all 3 dressed over 100 lbs, 2 dressed over 150. We are happy about that, we just love the good meat that comes from hard work. My lambs did really well, the ram was sold young and put on a spit, we were lucky enough to even get to go to the BBQ, it was just phenomenal. The little ewe went just before thanksgiving, she dressed over 40 lbs and the family who bought it said the meat is just excellent. I am so happy and proud of our little family farm.
We have been having trouble with a neighbour trespassing onto our back property, even had a few trees cut down back there, so we are planning on fencing most of the 20 acres for the sheep next year, as well as keeping people off the property.
My garden had its best year yet, and I know I say that every year, but I am telling the truth, it is a newer garden so it just naturally keeps improving. I also have the perk of composting the chicken manure and putting it in there too! I got at least 100 lbs of beets this year. So I pickled a good 50 litres this year, and made a whole bunch of harvard beets too. I managed to get a whole lot of beans, carrots, and peas blanched and into the freezer too. Nothing is more satisfying than sitting down to a meal of chicken, potatoes, veggies and dessert with almost 100% of the ingredients coming from my own back yard! Oh and I spoiled myself and bought a food processor this year!
Pebbles and the bassets are all doing great, Odie had a rough summer with his lupus acting up rather often, but thanks to a lovely girlfriend who lives all the way in Tennessee Odie now has a beautiful sunhat to keep the sun off his nose and eyes! The cat, Wally in case you forgot is doing well, still coming out of his shell. We had some mice sneek in this summer and Wally would catch one every other night or so. He has really impressed me and I think that I actually like him! But don't tell anyone!
Hubby and boys are all doing great, they all work so hard around here. We put a new steel roof on our house this summer, (dark green) I just love it! We managed to get the boat into the water a couple of times, host our annual fall bbq, go to a couple of other bbqs, and had good times with both family and friends. What a lovely 2012 it has been!
I will get back to my weekly routine now that its fall, I have some great stories in mind, and a heart full of love to share. So till next time folks, please remember to adopt don't shop, and spay and neuter your pets! And if you have a black cat please keep him indoors with Halloween coming in a few short days. Happy Halloween 2012!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Time for an update!
Things have finally slowed down for me enough to take a few minutes to post an update on all the latest happenings on the farm here, and in my fair city. Timmins 9 fire is now classified as "Under Control" it maxed out at 70 kms long and 10 kms wide. It managed to jump one of our main thorough fares of the north, and jump a lake. Cottages on the lake edge (including my in laws place) were all spared thanks to the great fire fighters hard work. More than 200 sprinklers were put onto cottage roofs and left to run there for days, saving millions of dollars worth of buildings and even more memories. The fire hasn't grown for a few weeks now and we have received plenty of rain, which really helped. The 80 fire fighters from the beautiful province of British Colombia even got to fly home the other day. I am sure very glad to see their friends, family's, and loved ones. We are all stress free and happy now up here!
The farm is going strong as can be. My vegetable garden is in, except for my potatoes. My old and trusty rusty rototiller died on us and just won't start again. So we borrowed one from a friend to get the earth turned so that we could plant. The garden looks beautiful!
My meat birds are growing like weeds, a few are over the 6 pound mark now, and will be ready for slaughter in a few weeks. My layers have all settled in nicely and I am getting between 16 and 20 eggs a day now. I still just love walking out to the back yard and seeing my lovely ladies running towards me.
I managed to find a beautiful white silkie rooster. He wasn't with us for very long before a fox came and got him and one of his hens. I kept all the eggs from the other 3 hens and put them into an incubator. Half the batch is due to hatch on Monday then the other half on Tuesday. We are getting very excited about seeing these new little "fluffies" in just a few days.
My lawns are all green, except the chicken yard which is now just down to dirt! The dog kennel went from a bright yellow only a few days ago to puffy white balls tonight when I look out there. I just love this time of year. The hounds and Pebbles are all doing good. Odie ended up getting a different kind of ear drop for his ears and a new antibiotic pill too. It really seemed to kick that bacteria in the butt. The family is all good, I am still working lots, and was even promoted at work to head cutter. That earned me a $1 raise so I am now officially making the most an hour that I ever have. I am still loving my job, but am looking forward to only part time for the summer holidays!!
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