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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 »
I’m a scrounge. We joke that in my family it doesn’t really kick in until you reach 30. After that you can’t walk by a pile of junk in someone’s yard or barn or falling down house and not want to go poke through it looking for useful stuff. So, I subscribe to a “freecycle” yahoo group for my area. Rarely is there anything that interests me. But when I saw an ad for “free California and New Zealand rabbits plus cages” I jumped on it. 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.
It’s been a busy January/February so far here at Miles Away Farm. On overcast foggy cold days, I’m indoors planning the garden, ordering seeds, researching fruit varieties for the perennial garden, paying my business taxes (Washington bases their business tax on gross, not net. What’s up with that!), and researching new personal care products (vanilla sugar scrub anyone?).
I’m also trying to line up product liability insurance, which is proving to be difficult because I want to be so diversified. Some are scared off by eggs, some by fragrance in toiletry products, some by the foot traffic for classes I might teach in the commercial kitchen. I’m starting to feel like Joel Salatin in his book “Everything I Want To Do is Illegal”.
So Walla Walla is known to get rather foggy and overcast in the winter, and this winter is no exception. We still have green grass in the yard, and our days have been in the high 30’s/low 40’s, but we haven’t been seeing the sun much over the last month. And on a few occasions, we’ve actually had just the right combination of temperature and moisture to make fantastic ice crystals on…well…everything. It makes the cloudy gray days easier to take.
Sometimes you’re the hay.
Taken with my phone camera while following my husband down to Walla Walla on the last big haul. Hey, at least I wasn’t texting.
Wow, it’s been almost a month since I last posted. I’ve been writing three blog posts in my head. Ratatouille as a winter stew (still to come). The saga of the four baby chicks born in the middle of October (all chicks have now gone to chicken heaven, victims to being stuck under Mamma’s wing unnoticed, a too cold morning, and at almost four weeks old, the last one to the neighbors cat…ugh. Enough said about that). And one about…oh yeah, moving 200 miles south. Read the rest of this entry »
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