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I wrote a few weeks ago about how farming seemed to be about 40% fencing. If you have animals, I think an additional 40% is about poo management. Today, if you haven’t guessed, I cleaned out the chicken coop, changed out the shredded paper under the rabbit cages, and chipped out the area in the duck pen where they spend most of their time at night. All of this was deposited, with a LOT of water, in the compost pile, using a shovel and a wheelbarrow. After all, the bedding is supposed to be absorbent, so it takes a lot of water to get it wet enough to get the composting process started. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, summer is in full swing. I’m doing two farmers markets a week. The garden is coming on strong. The weeds and grass are high. It’s getting hard to tell the chickens born this spring apart from the older hens. The ducks are starting to molt into their final adult plumage. And the turkey…well, he’s just funny looking.
Can you find the chicken in this picture?
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I’m personally a big fan of traditional blue/purple iris, but this one is just stunning. It’s been fun to see what all the colors in the yard are. Evidently, Walla Walla had a famous Iris breeder for a lot of years, and many yards here locally bear the results.
Yup, right now everyone seems to be living in peace and harmony. We’ll see how long it lasts. No one has gotten stuck in a fence this week.
We managed to trim the feet of Elmo, the one goat who we will keep (as a gift) from my friend whom the other goats are on loan from. Elmo (recently renamed Molly) was a rescue and her feet were way overgrown. Trimming feet is definitely a two-person job, and we’ll have to do it every week for a month or so, removing a little bit more each time, until they are back to normal. She took it pretty well.
The young sheep are growing fast! Soon it will be time to ween them. Read the rest of this entry »
American Blackbelly/Soay Sheep.
Wow, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. On May 5th (while having a Kentucky Derby Party at the house) we had 6 new sheep delivered. They are all girls (ewes). Three adults and three little ones. We found them on Craig’s List. I know, not how you are supposed to buy livestock, but they were the right breed at the right price, and they were delivered. Read the rest of this entry »
Rabbits and ducklings and goat (heads), oh my.
Here’s an update on the goings on at Miles Away Farm.
Seriously, could we be any cuter?
The three turkeys (Bourbon Red’s – heritage breed – same species Barbara Kingsolver raised in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) and 16 Ancona ducklings (they sent one extra) arrived last Wednesday. I bought them from Strombergs, and they mailed them out Monday morning from Minnesota. The Post Office called me about 9:00 am Wednesday morning to say “come get them”. They were all fine, and hungry, and seemingly none the worse for wear, which never ceases to amaze me. Read the rest of this entry »
First chick to hatch, about 1:00 pm on Saturday. Not quite dried yet.
Well, the big news this week is that of the 36 eggs I had in my incubator (from my own chickens) 27 of them hatched. I wrote a post about baby chicks last year, so I won’t go into great detail on how it all works. But I started the eggs warming on March 12th, and by March 30th (two days early, which means my incubator was running a bit warm – even with two new thermometers to monitor the temp.) the first chick had hatched. By the morning of April 2nd, the last one was out of the shell.
Bloomed just in time for my birthday. Zone 6 baby. Just sayin’.
Getting LOTS more eggs now. I have 15 laying hens, and with the exception of the Buttercup, who has likely got a stash somewhere that I haven’t found, and the crazy Red Star who roosts in and lays under the blue spruce (despite my repeated objections), all are laying IN THE NEST BOXES.
It’s funny. No matter where you live, spring can not come fast enough. In southwest Colorado, the daffodils bloomed around April 15th, and our final frost of the year often came near Father’s Day in June. Here in southeast Washington, the daffodils will likely unfurl their petals near March 15th, and every day, I go out and check on them, dancing like a two-year old who needs a trip to the bathroom, and chanting “hurry up”.
The chicken wire keeps the hens from "scratching" out the bulbs.
And then finally, last Sunday, we had a stunningly beautiful sunny day and temperatures in the high 50’s, and I found my first crocus bloom. I then walked under one of the huge silver maples out near the barn and was stopped in my tracks by the sound. The tiny pollen spewing blooms had burst forth, and the bees had found this critical source of early spring food. The tree was so full of bees that you could hear the buzz, just standing underneath it.
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