“You ought to put some sweatshirts on those calves. They look cold.” ~our neighbor ‘Bibe’
Ha! Gotta love our neighbors. Everyone is enjoying seeing the calves in the pasture, and everyone seems to have a different favorite. Matt’s pretty proud whenever someone tells him how cute his calves are.
Too cold to put chicks out, I finally decided. It was a debate. They’re at the point now that keeping them inside might be worse for them than putting them out, even if it is a bit chilly. But predicted lows of 28 degrees for tonight and tomorrow night, I just couldn’t do it.
Matt and I went ahead and got their shed and fence set up in the pasture – in the snow. Yes, I said the “s” word. It snowed briefly several times yesterday, and again today. But temperatures are expected to be back in the 60’s Wednesday, so we figured if we were ready to go we’ll be able to take the chicks out to pasture after work some evening this week.
I wish I had thought to take the camera with me, just to show the huge amount of bedding I shoveled out today. Last fall we put the pigs in the shed the broilers had used all summer. Didn’t clean it out, just put the pigs in on top of the leftover deep woodchip bedding and added straw. Shoveling it out today, you couldn’t even tell it had been woodchips. There wasn’t even much straw left. Everything was mixed together by the pigs and decomposed down to a nice, fine dirt. 4 loads in the tractor bucket.
We weren’t thinking, because we didn’t bring a wagon with us to haul it back up to the house. It would have made good mulch in the garden. But it got piled up outside the pasture fence. We’ll remember next year.
Then I shoveled out a year’s worth of bedding from the hens’ coop. I believe I’ll be needing a nice hot bath tonight!
The broilers were 3 weeks old Wednesday. They look a bit disheveled at this point. Adolescent. This was them just a week ago. This was them just 3 weeks ago.
Tomorrow is moving day, out to pasture. It’s so fun to watch them on pasture the first time. Chicken bliss. Fresh air, green grass, bugs and worms.
The pullets and roos are feathering out nicely, too. This was them just 3-1/2 weeks ago.
Buff-laced Polish roo. His “hat” looks like dandelion fluff.
Partridge Cochin pullet. Such pretty coloring, love the feathers on her legs.
Golden Polish pullet. Such a fancy girl.
Salmon Faverolle roo. The 5-toed bird. He also has feathers on his legs.
An Araucana pullet showing off her perching skills. I can’t believe how huge the Araucanas are!
Working…which gets harder as the weather gets nicer. One more month of full-time and then I get to work part-time for the summer. My boss is cool.
Farming…
The scale inspector wasn’t able to come today, so it will probably be the week after next. The chix are ready to move out to pasture this weekend, but it’s been so cold here lately I’m not sure. Then again I remember having this same worry last spring and they were just fine. Still waiting on Wild Thing to have her calf.
Making…a huge list for our trip to the “big city” tomorrow night. We even got a babysitter! So it’s a big date night to Fleet Farm for us!
Listening…to “What I Got” by Sublime . Love this song, I’ve downloaded 3 different versions of it. And the part that really cracks me up is:
I don’t get angry when my mom smokes pot
Hits the bottle and goes right to the rock
I guess because the picture of my mom doing that is just, well, not her. Lucky for me!
Snacking…Planter’s Dry Roasted Pistachios. They’re heart healthy! But I wake up in the night worrying that the squirrel who lives in our attic is going to somehow find his way into my office and raid my stash.
Thinking…about this quote, taken from a speech by Anna Quindlen.
“Nothing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great ever came out of imitations. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself…
Set aside what your friends expect, what your parents demand, what your acquaintances require… Then look, every day, at the choices you are making, and when you ask yourself why you are making them, find this answer: for me, for me. Because they are who and what I am, and mean to be…
If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all…
If you can bring to your children the self that you truly are, as opposed to some amalgam of manners and mannerisms, expectations and fears that you have acquired as a carapace along the way, you will give them, too, a great gift. You will teach them by example not to be terrorized by the narrow and parsimonious expectations of the world, a world that often likes to color within the lines when a spray of paint, a scrawl of crayon, is what is truly wanted.”
You can read the full text of this speech here.
Mertensia virginica
Borage family (Boraginaceae)
Each spring the Virginia bluebells wash a certain hill over at my parents’ farm in blue. It’s become an annual tradition to take the kids’ picture on “bluebell hill”.
The farm I grew up on is one of the prettiest farms around. Nestled amongst the bluffs of the Big Cedar River it is surrounded by 4 different landscapes: the river directly across the road to the south; corn fields to the west; prairie-like pasture on top of the bluff to the north; and wooded hills to the east.
My brother and I spent summers playing in the river, building tree houses and forts in the woods, following the deer paths, hunting mushrooms, riding our 3-wheeler on the gravel road, and exploring little caves in the bluff. I loved to go up to the pasture and recreate that opening scene from Little House on the Prairie – bounding like Melissa Gilbert in a long dress through the tall grass. Really 🙂 I could write a whole post on my love of all things Laura Ingalls Wilder.
My mom would send me to school with bluebells for my teacher. And, a little later in spring, lilacs – cut ends wrapped in a wet paper towel and surrounded by tinfoil.
More pictures from Sunday…
as Rafe would say. Yesterday afternoon I headed out for a walk around the farm, camera in hand. The first scene I came upon was a hen running about with a mouse dangling from her beak. The other 26 hens were in hot pursuit, trying to steal this tasty morsel from her. Before I could point and shoot she swallowed the mouse whole in 3 gulps! I’d never seen anything like it.
I would have waited another week or two to let the cows out to pasture. But I guess they begged and begged and talked Matt into it. He’s a pushover. They were so happy to be on fresh grass again.
With the cows out Matt got to work cleaning up their winter area. These lovely piles of cornstalks, hay and manure are removed from the lot, piled up along the east side of our property, and allowed to compost. Come fall we’ll spread the compost on the garden.
Our Canada geese pair had some friends stop by.
The stockers getting their daily buckets of corn.
This process of getting our farm business going is like putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes I can’t believe it will ever happen. My “feet” feel like lead, like I can barely make the next step. And then we do take one more little baby step. And we’re that much closer to getting there.
Today I spoke with the Iowa Bureau of Weights and Measures about getting our scale inspected and certified. Can I just say I was “wowed” by the service? Within 15 minutes of emailing them an inspector called me and we talked for 1/2 an hour. I learned a lot. He will be up next Wednesday to do the inspection.
One more step down. How many more to go? Not sure. But the next one is to develop some labels so that I can attach them to the application for our food warehouse permit, which I want to mail in at the end of next week. That will take some time at the computer, a meeting with our processor. Baby steps.
The cookies are ready to go in the oven.
Cookies?! This is a cooking show? I thought this was an evil plan!
Yes, right! My cookies…er, evil plan…is ready to hatch!
(set timer for 8 minutes)
Behold my beautiful cookies…er, evil plan! It is ready! Mu-wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
…Madeline’s 1-girl skit while baking chocolate chip cookies after school today. The things she comes up with! I’m always asking, “Where did you hear that?”, because it sounds like something she’s heard on TV. But she makes all this stuff up. Gotta dig her imagination!
The broiler chicks are 2 weeks old now. They’re newly-sprouted wing feathers shine bright and white against the yellow baby down that still covers their bodies. Another 9 days in my garage, and then they’ll have enough feathers to be put out in the pasture.
I hope to put up some current pics of our other breeds of chicks soon. It requires a team effort because they’re much flightier than the broilers.
It’s rained off and on the past 3 days, and the temperatures are considerably cooler. Tomorrow night they’re talking 30 degrees for a low, so after work tomorrow we’ll need to cover the delicate new strawberry plants.
Rain, right after you’ve put seeds in the ground
Beef Stew in the crockpot and Seven Grain Bread in the bread machine
Two new pairs of shoes: these cuz I needed them and these cuz I didn’t.
