I went to the Cornwall Yarn Shop and bought pretty heart buttons, sewed them on at the shop and wore the vest all afternoon. I bought green tweed yarn for the next vest.
Archive for January, 2009
Finished blue vest
January 29, 2009My first successful vest
January 28, 2009
I spent the afternoon finishing up my vest. Last winter I made two unsuceesful attempts, one meant for me came out Gabe’s size. The other one just didn’t come out. I sought advise from Gail at the local yarn shop and she gave me a simple pattern sized for me and helped me get the right yarn. Here’s my beauty blocked. Tomorrow I will buy buttons and take a picture of it on.
Rooster stew on the woodstove
January 28, 2009
The house is toasty with the blanket of snow on the roof. I have a rooster stew simmering on the stove. It will need to cook for a few days to get tender enough.
Another snowday
January 28, 2009
Kids are home again with a snowday closing schools. Emma went off to babysit for friends who both work. The boys are still in their pajamas. I spent the morning in the barn, worming and innoculating and doing a general health chck on all the goats.
Wednesday Barn Report
January 21, 2009This morning when I headed out to do chores it was nine degrees outside. Inside the barn it was 23 degrees. I am happy with that.
The girls are all pregnant and resting from milking. This is also supposed to be my period of rest but the frozen water pipes have me in a weight lifting routine 3 times a day when I lug 5 gallon buckets of water up the hill for all of the animals. I am getting stronger and stronger. Who needs a gym if you are a farmer??? This has been a tough winter.
When I harvested most of my toms at Thanksgiving and kept just one for the three remaining hens, I may have made a mistake (and of course, I am still learning so much about heritage breed turkeys any advice you can offer me would be immensely appreciated). This guy is out to kill me. My calves are covered with peck bruises. I tried to intimidate him with my herding stick. No, it makes him more aggressive. I even knocked him unconscious the other day (and was horrified by my actions) and he woke up after 5 minutes and went right after me. And yes, he broke my glasses too. I am thankful he does not attack my children although there are certain other members of the household I would encourage him to attack but I will not discuss that here. Tonight was the last straw. When he went after me for the third or fourth time, I dumped a 5 gallon bucket over his head and put him in jail in the barn. Free range is over for the next two or three months. Of course, the turkey hens joined him. They are now laying eggs, which I am tucking under the broody hens until the incubator arrives in the mail next week. And Tom will be replaced by a couple of new males come spring. But he has work to do between now and then and as long as the weather stays so miserable I do not feel so bad about jail for a while.
Andrew Wyeth
January 17, 2009
My favorite artist died yesterday. His prints grace my walls just as they do in my mother and did in my grandmother’s house. Just two days ago as I walked the dogs into the back woods on a very grey morning, I looked at the light and thought this is an Andrew Wyeth winter scene.
Ice!
January 10, 2009We have terrible ice on the ground. All of us are bruised and cut from falling. We use our walking poles to move anywhere. This morning I set the milking pail (full of milk!) down and it slid away down the slope. Tonight I slipped and tossed a basket of eggs. When I tried to retrieve the unbroken ones, I managed to fall down a slope full of stumps and branches and tore myself up. Needless to say the rest of the eggs broke. Ugh!
Tuesday Night Barn Report
January 6, 2009Another storm is coming in, two to four inches of snow overnight and half an inch of ice tomorrow.
The does are all pregnant and ending their lactations. This morning I was down to milking only two, getting about half a gallon of milk for the family. With the pending storm, I actually bought my first half gallon of organic milk, just in case.
Celia is due first and I noted that she was bred on September 20, 2008, giving her a due date of February 17, 2009. However, I run Henry, my Boer buck with the girls so he could have bred her earlier but I think not. Lucy is huge and dried off weeks ago but I have a due date for her of early April. I think she’ll give birth after Celia. Josephine was bred November 14th so should give birth April 20th and she is still milking so I think that date is right. I have no idea about Penelope, Sophie or Bambi. Henry has repeatedly bred Elizabeth and she does not look pregnant at all so I think something is wrong there. She aborted her last two pregnancies near the end. And Elizabeth is acting like a buck, making that funny buck sound and mounting the girls. I have to pose that scenario to my goat listserv for advice! The young does have been house with my new Nubian buckling because of space issues (and Henry trying to kill him) and I have been hoping that he will be slow to mature. Very high on my priority list in the spring is a secure fence to go with the new buck house. The electric fence did not cut it during breeding season and Henry just leaped over it or walked through it to get to the herd.
The turkeys have been alternating between sleeping in the trees and sleeping in the chicken house, depending upon the weather. I think one of the hens I kept is starting to lay because I have been finding a chicken size speckled egg in the chicken house for a couple of mornings. The tom I kept is turning into quite the nasty guy, attacking me at every chance. I am wondering if I should have kept a second Tom for him to compete with?
New Poultry Census
January 3, 2009This morning I counted the birds as I released methodically them from chicken house. Usually I just fling the door open and them fly out from the roosts and stream out the door. It always reminds me of the scene where twenty clowns come out of a little VW bug. In any case, it appears I did not lose any chickens to red tail hawks this late fall/early winter. I did lose the little white Silkie one night who climbed under the log pile where I couldn’t reach and was gone in the morning. I also lost a speckled sussex pullet overnight in the chicken house last week. She appeared traumatized and there was a broken roost that night that I think fell on her.
Friday Night Barn Report
January 3, 2009The goats were happy to spend the day outside after being confined in the barn for two days because of the bitter cold weather. The milk has diminished to just a half gallon in the morning and soon I will dry all the does off altogether. I will miss the milk for the next month but enjoy the relief from the milking routine. More time will mean more blog entries hopefully.
Celia is due in midFebruary and the rest will follow at various dates until April. Everyone is rounding out with their pregnancies.
A surprise hay delivery last Tuesday filled my hay loft and I made amonster feed run while the driveway to the barn was clear. I am prepped for the worse of the winter. This unintended hay delivery was the best hay yet and the goats are eating it like crazy.
The chickens are laying two dozen or so a day and the ducks five eggs every morning. I have been supplying the local food coop. The turkeys are breeding like crazy but no eggs yet. Ordering an incubator is high on my list but I need to consult my farm mentors for suggestions.
Tonight Delilah herded the ducks into the chicken house for the first time. I am so proud of her! She is maturing into a fabulous farm dog. I have been trying to teach her to watch for the red tail hawks and bark at them. I have a feeling that will click in soon. I just need her to look up and spot them.
We tasted my cheddar on Christmas and it was incredible. I have six wheels aging in my small fridge and look forward too seeing whether the quality carries through. I intend to make much more cheddar next year.
On New Year’s Eve, I got to watch a young vet treat a very expensive horse for colic. It is a different world when you can get a vet on call to come to your barn on New Year’s Eve within 15 minutes of calling. But that is the horse world. I can’t find a knowledgeable vet to work with me with my goats on a regular basis. It was fascinating to watch her work and think about what could have been if I had followed that path.
The 2009 goals/planning are in the works and should be posted in the next few days. The next chicken census is on the to do list today.
