Solomon, our lovely rooster gazes over his flock. He is a good tempered bird unlike many mature roosters who become evil and dangerous.

Tom's pasture chicken houses

We are pasturing our meat chickens in a new enclosure this summer and so far it is working well. The electric poultry netting hopefully deters predators like skunks, coons and foxes. The birds are fed their organic grain and are free to roam about eating insects and grass. When the patch gets bare, we move  the fence and they are back in fresh clover again.  After about three months, they should weight between six and eight pounds and are ready for the freezer. Completely organic. No GMO.s. No antibiotics. No medicated feed. Tastiest chicken ever.

Summer grazing in the sheep pastures

Early July and the hayfields are brown and the corn and field crops are suffering in this drought. Most farmers did get a first cut of hay baled successfully but the second cut is just not happening. And the pastures are burnt and there'll be lots of cattle going to the salesbarn soon if we don't get some moisture.

Our hay is mostly down and three fields baled with the rest slated for the end of the week. The sheep are definitely benefitting from our new rotational grazing system. We move just over a mile of Electronet fencing every three to five days so they move between eight pastures.  Also has worked wonderfully for parasite control and no coyote losses (knock wood) so far. This morning we took our first four lambs to the abbatoir: always a sad occasion which I never get used to. Lambs had their revenge however. I was severely kicked in the eye by the horned ram we were trying to wrestle into the trailer. I've learned to keep my head away from the horns but this guy launched himself into space and his back leg caught me right in the eyebrow.

We have about 135 meat birds growing in the barn and ready to go to their pasture and another 100 baby chicks under the brooder light.  And six piggies, all black charmers, rooting around in the back pig field. Five more are arriving on Thursday.

And I've ordered a dozen new laying hens as our old girls are entering retirement. Tom shot a skunk last week who had figured out how to get into the run. Predator control is an ongoing challenge on the farm.

We are doing two weekly markets: Tom drops me and my freezer off in Pembroke by 7:30 on Saturday mornings and then he continues on to Killaloe with the second freezer. At one pm we do the reverse. And then at five pm, I go off to my part time job as a server at the Granary Restaurant. Helps pay the farm bills.

Hola from Espagne

I've been enjoying the fabulous Manchego sheep cheese of Spain and missing my girls. Excited to get home on May 2 and see how the lambs have grown. And I'll be bringing a nice bottle of Rioja as thanks for Tom who kept the home fires burning while I've been away.

Welcome Spring!!

I've been enjoying the fabulous Manchego sheep cheese of Spain and missing my girls. Excited to get home on May 2 and see how the lambs have grown. And I'll be bringing a nice bottle of Rioja as thanks for Tom who kept the home fires burning while I've been away.

Rejected lambs and Seedy Sunday

After an easy winter we've been lulled into believing spring is just around the corner. "Seedy Sunday" on March 4 is always a busy day with all the gardeners and food growers enthusiastically sharing and swapping and buying stuff for the upcoming season. Last year we had a huge blizzard. This year we had a cold snap! Minus 25 overnight. The chickens water line froze. The lambs are huddled to keep warm.

I went to the barn Sunday morning at 6:15 and all is calm and quiet. When I returned at 8 a.m all was mayhem. A ewe was lambing in a corner and angrily butting away other lambs who were curious to see what was going on. (she had chosen the corner with the heat lamp which is where the lambs usually gather overnight.) Then is see a tiny newborn lamb staggering around way out in the middle of the barn. Aha, here's her first lamb which has wandered off while she has her second. I catch the lamb and take it over to her, but she's doesn't greet it with any enthusiasm and the lamb immediately scrambles away. Two or three more times I return it, I put up a couple of temporary panels around her, but no luck with mom and lamb bonding.

Then suddenly it dawns on me. Maybe not her lamb. So I make the round of the barn in the dim morning light, examining tails for signs of recent parturition and yes, here is a young miss
who was round as a cotton puff yesterday and looks substantially thinner this morning. But she shows no interest in the lamb either. But I KNOW this is her child.

Fortunately Tom has just arrived in the barn as I have my hands full with tiny lamb, am busy fending off the bottle babies who are dancing around me, the cat who is twining herself around my ankles and the cacophony of bleating, clucking, meowing is deafening as I realize I have a headache from a too enthusiastic celebration of the successful completion of our first Writer's Workshop at Collaborations Retreat the previous evening.

Tom helps move a ewe out of a lambing pen and we catch young miss and install her with tiny lamb but she wants nothing to do with it. Then we find ANOTHER tiny lamb wandering around in the feed room. "Not my kids" young missy says. And backs it up by fervently bunting them out of the way. So I spend the next hour down on my knees, pinning missy in the corner and trying to get both both tiny lambs to nurse.

Repeated attempts eventually work and I know that if I can get them sucking, mom's oxytocin will kick in and she'll feel maternal. So with some trepidation, I leave the little family
alone while I go to seedy Sunday and to deliver eggs and when I return two hours later, all is domestic harmony. Just another Sunday on the farm!