Instagram Hay Hauling

On our way to get some hay.  It was 8:00 in the morning.  That info is significant because the kids are usually still in bed (not necessarily sleeping) at that time.

We borrowed a flatdeck trailer so we could get 2 bales.

Then picked up Russell from another little farm on the way back (he was free, by the way).

Darryl had no trouble rolling the last bale we bought off the truck and into place.  These ones seemed a lot heavier.  We both managed to push the first one off, but the second one took a little persuasion in the form of tie down straps and a nearby tree.

We still love getting hay though!  Darryl drove right through downtown on the way home, just so the city people could get a taste of some culture.  We were hoping Russell would crow but he was hunkered down in the back and focused on staying upright.  Oh well.

The New Girls

You may remember a recent post about losing most of our laying flock to a racoon (read it here if you missed it).

We had three left.  The thought of having to buy eggs was a little nauseating and we missed having the flock scratching around, controlling bugs and entertaining us.

So we bought new ones.  Twelve of them.  They’re 20 weeks old now and should start laying any day.

They’re a laying breed called Hyline from a hatchery in Armstrong.  Local girls!

We kept them in the coop with the older 3 so they could get used to each other for a week.  The day we let them out was the day we brought home a rooster.

We named him Russell.  As in, Russell Crow(e).  He’s part silky and part bantam cochin, so he’s slightly smaller than the girls, but he’s really pretty ( I’ll try to get a better picture soon) with iridescent green tail plumage and large black eyes (as opposed to the hen’s raptor eyes).

Hearing a rooster crowing makes it feel like a real farm again.  That’s one sound I’ve missed for the last few months.

If he ever does breed with the hens (if they let him…he’s kinda short.  Maybe we should have called him Tom Cruise), and I ever get around to setting up a little incubator, the chicks should look interesting.

Anyway, since the older hens got used to the younger ones being around and the younger ones learned to respect the older ones, they’ve been getting along and the bug control squad is back up to 15 +1.  And we still get about 2 eggs a day, mostly from the older ones, but soon we’ll be getting at least a dozen a day again!  There really is no comparison between these free-range (on actual pasture) eggs and factory eggs.  Did you know these eggs have over 20 times the amount of omega 3 fatty acids than factory eggs?

Be careful when you buy eggs at the grocery store.  Just because it says ‘Free Range’ on the carton does not mean the hens have access to grass and bugs.  Your best bet is to buy eggs from a local farmer who keeps happy, healthy chickens.

Like us!

Farmgirl Fashion

Now that Sadie is dextrous enough to dress herself, I usually let her pick her own outfits.  Some are rather interesting, some have pieces worn wrong, but for the most part, they’re all very creative and actually look pretty cute.

There are times when I do veto her choices, like when she wants to wear pyjamas or spaghetti strapped dresses outside on a cold, rainy day, or wants to wear her good shoes outside to play (she has farm shoes for that purpose).  I also give her suggestions when she’s frustrated because she can’t find anything in her drawers (that would be because all her clean clothes are strewn about her bedroom floor and the just-washed clothes are in the laundry basket.  She hates looking in the laundry basket and usually quits as soon as she sees it).  I help her pick out outfits for church sometimes, but she usually does pretty good.  I might only suggest a jacket or sweater or accessories.

I try to let her be creative with her dressing and if it’s not terrible or embarrassing I let it go.  That doesn’t happen too often though.  It also helps that I keep her wardrobe small, with one drawer for tops and one for bottoms, including pyjamas.  The tops drawer has sweaters, long sleeves, t-shirts, tank tops and pj tops, while the bottom drawer has pants, leggings, shorts, shirts and pj bottoms.  If she starts getting so many clothes that they don’t all fit, I get rid of my least favourite, or the ones she doesn’t wear much.  It’s pretty easy for her to mix and match cause most things seem to go together pretty well (notice I said MOST).

When I get her up in the morning (I taught her to stay in her room until I come get her), she’s often dressed in a combination of items I would never have thought to put together, but they work on her.  It’s fun seeing the outfits she comes up with.

I’ve been snapping photos of her outfit choices on and off since I got my new phone, and I’m going to compile them all here for your enjoyment.

I think I helped her a little on this outfit by suggesting the jacket.  She wanted the necklace, which is actually a t-shirt necklace I made.  She wears it a lot.

I wasn’t too crazy about this one, but we didn’t have to go anywhere, and she actually was rather coordinated without looking like she was trying too hard.

She chose this outfit to wear to a friend’s house and donned the hat when she got there, and wouldn’t put the kitten down.

The jacket didn’t really work here, but the rest of it wasn’t too bad (there were pink flowers on the pants).  We were only outside to do some chores anyway.

Hee hee.  Red skirt, hot pink leggings, top with pink and red stars, red boots…it kinda works.  She let me put a pony tail in her hair.  That doesn’t happen every day, or every week.

This was after her nap the same day.  Different shirt, add a necklace and a scarf.  Lose the pony.

I think this one is my favourite.  The sparkly shoes complete the look.

Sparkly shoes on backwards.  I only let her wear them outside because they were pretty much too small anyway, and she got new ones.

This was the same day as the previous photo, only she added a sweater and a red skirt.

I have no words.

She did up the buttons herself.  And that’s an apron she’s wearing as a necklace. (I’ll show you the finished playground soon!)

And then there’s this outfit from the previous post.

This is what she wore to her cousin’s firetruck birthday party.

And finally, a sporty little number for doin’ chores.

She cracks me up.

She’s A Big Help

At this rate, it’ll take the rest of my lifetime to fill the wheelbarrow.

I need to buy another manure fork.

Wheelin

I have a good reason for my infrequent posts lately.  I’ve been pushing a wheelbarrow any chance I can get!  There’s still a thousand loads of poop in the horse pen, but I’m almost done the biggest section.  I try to haul at least one load a day, but I can usually haul 2, and sometimes 5 or 6 more during nap time.
I’ve also been hauling composted manure to wherever I feel like spreading it at the time (usually a function of muscle fatigue, weight of the load and distance to be hauled).  A few loads of old loose hay made it to the other compost pile and a full yard of sand made it to the sand pit last week, and several loads of wood chips made it to the chicken run.  Hopefully I can get that finished today.
But I just bought plants, so it might have to wait.

I have another pickup load of wood chips to spread in the playground, and then it’ll be done!  And then I’ll show you a picture.  I do need to finish that today cause some little friends are coming over tomorrow.
So that has been my life lately and there’s no end in sight. You should see my muscles! I’m really liking not having to pay to workout in a gym full of strangers and have nothing to show for it. I get a workout and I can see what I’ve accomplished everyday and track my progress with more than just a scale.  And my only audience is the horses, dog and birds.  Did I mention it’s free?
Alright, time to haul some more poop!

Poor Girls

In the last 10 days or so, we’ve lost the duck and most of our chickens.  We have 3 left.  At first we thought maybe it was ravens, because we see them stealing eggs from the coop when the door is open during the day, so we started leaving it closed and opening the chicken run, so the girls can still get in through their little door.  Then I found the duck.  I thought it was a raven at first, until I saw the rounded bill.  Her insides were gone.  Then we lost 3 chickens, then 5, then one or two.  The poor girls are scared to go in the coop at night and try roosting on the porch sometimes.  After blocking the little entrance to their coop with a wooden box and finding that moved aside the next morning, we screwed a piece of wood to the outside.  Since they only go missing at night, we’re opening the big door again during the day.  We’re outside for much of the day and Kai likes to chase ravens, so we haven’t seen too many of them recently.  The other night, Darryl couldn’t find one of the 3 survivors.  She was on the porch because Kai barked in the middle of the night and Darryl sprang out of bed and saw the chicken and a bunch of feathers and something running into the trees.  Now we think it’s a racoon, which makes a lot more sense.  The chicken was okay.  We lock them in the coop at night, even though we have to hunt down at least one of them trying to roost elsewhere.

So that is our sad story of chicken carnage.  Hopefully we can hang on to these girls until we get another flock going or we’ll have to buy eggs!  It’s been like 4 years since I had to do that.

We’re planning to raise more broilers this year, so we’ll add a few layers into the first batch, who should be ready to lay in the fall.  We really like having ducks so we might pick up 2 or 3 and try again (third time’s the charm?).

Off to let the girls out of their confinement for the day…

Instagram

I don’t know if you’re aware of this nifty app called Instagram that edits photos on your phone.  Once you’ve taken a picture and applied one of the 17 filters you upload it to the Instagram site where your followers can see it in a feed similar to Facebook.  You can follow other people and see the pictures they take.

It’s pretty fun insofar as I can share my photos with friends, but the limited options for filters got a little boring after a week.  Great for quick snaps, but to make them a little more interesting or unique, you need another app.  Or two.

(I love this picture)

I got another one that makes collages with more than one photo.  It’s called Photo Grid (there are lots of different ones to choose from).  I used it to make this collage, which I then opened in Instagram and added a filter.

Then I found a good filter app called Pixlr-o-matic.  With that app, I can add hundreds of filters, borders and overlays, then post on Instagram, with or without adding another filter.  This photo is edited only in Pixlr-o-matic.

These apps are all free, which makes me like them even better.  And it really isn’t complicated to edit in one app and switch to another.  Takes a few seconds.

Here are a few of my favourites taken over the last 3 weeks (in addition to the ones I already posted).

Do you have Instagram?  Follow me! (farmwife23)

Weekend Haul

I went garage saleing last weekend.  Definitely one of my favourite things to do, maybe because I only find time to go 2-3 times a year.  I usually go with a list in my head of things to look for, and this time was no different.  We need a pitchfork, preferably an older one cause the new ones are junk and expensive and don’t last very long.  I need fishing line cause I lost mine and I want to make some wind chimes.  I was kinda hoping for some electric fencing as well, but I knew that was a long shot.

Or not.  The first place I stopped had a milk separator, milk strainer, a pasteurizer, and a brand new roll of electric fencing!  I got the fencing and the strainer (cause I couldn’t remember if we had one or not and Darryl couldn’t see what I was describing in our storage area) for $15.  The fencing alone is worth $35.

At other sales, I found the fishing line for next to nothing and a few un-needed things (oops).

Driving back home, there was a new sign up for a fire sale, whatever that was.  It sounded interesting, so we checked it out.  A house that burned down a month or two ago was selling miscellaneous stuff in the backyard, like BBQ’s, scrap metal, tools…LOTS of stuff, and…

THESE!!!

They said to make an offer for the whole lot.  I went home and talked to Darryl, and he went back to have a look.

He got the whole lot for $25!  He left the nasty parts and just took the decent-looking stuff.  They need cleaning, but they seem like pretty decent quality.  Only one super has frames, but it’s a start.

Afterwards, on the way home from town again with the kids way past nap time but doing ok, I stopped in at Buckerfield’s to check out their electric fence options, and ended up buying everything I needed cause this fence charger was way less than I was expecting to pay for a good quality charger ($110).

I also got 12 step-in posts and a grounding rod (and a gate handle).

The posts have a sharp point on the bottom and a spot to step on to get them in the ground.

All the way up the side, they have slots for electric fencing for whatever height you want to put it.

I already have the posts set up in the pasture, but the grass isn’t quite ready to graze yet.  I gave the horses a fairly large area cause it’s been a while since they were around electric fence and I’m sure at least one of them will get a good zap and take off.  Hmmm, maybe I should make it bigger still.

Pastures are looking good though!

Oh, and we did have a milk strainer already.

Hay Trip

We like to take mini road trips.  Like half a day or most of a day and drive somewhere just for the heck of it.  One of our favourite drives is out past Vernon towards Cherryville.  There are so many farms and interesting houses.

The last time we went there, we had an actual purpose.

To bring home hay.

We love getting hay.

We’ve met some interesting people that way too.

The place we got hay from this time was close to Lumby and I remember driving by another year and seeing a newly-born calf in the corral.  On this trip it was too late to see calves being born, but there were still plenty of calves.

The bale was 1000lbs.

We saw a little ermine or something by a bridge over the creek.  It would poke its nose out then stand its long skinny body on its back legs and look at us, then disappear in a flash and show up again with a large dead mouse in its mouth.  He played hide and seek with us for 15 minutes.  It was cute, but I didn’t get a picture because by the time I went back to the truck for my camera, it found a hiding place and we didn’t see it again, of course.

 

Growth

The weather finally got nice.  It was pretty cold for the last week, but yesterday felt almost like summer.  I worked up a sweat just from light work like raking and scooping up the piles.  Maybe that’s just because I was out of shape.  But, whatever.  It was hot.

Now I’m dreading summer.

But my plants are looking forward to it!  I have a few little sprouts in the greenhouse, and a few volunteers in the garden already.  Like this oregano.

And chives.

And a pansy.  I love it when annuals seed themselves!

My solitary garlic clove poked it’s head out of the ground too.

I still have a lot of work to do in the garden.  I raked the paths to smooth out the vole hills and pulled last year’s dead tomato and pea vines out and tossed them in the compost pile.

I still need to bring some compost into each bed, then cover them with wood chips.  But the longer I wait, the warmer the soil will get.  And that will be a good thing for my warm-weather-loving tomatoes and peppers.

The yard is mostly raked now.  The grass is coming up nice and green, albeit a little thin.  I’m working on a fence to keep the girls out, but I’ll show you that another day.

The pasture grass is coming in nice and thick though, especially in the areas we spread compost!  A couple of pickup loads of manure we took out last spring spent a year thinking about itself, and became the nicest compost I’ve made yet.  And I wasn’t even trying.

I found a method for making compost out of horse manure in one month, so I’m trying it (but adding a couple weeks to make sure it works).  I need to turn the pile over this week and let it sit another 2-3 weeks, and it should be ready for the garden, if the garden can wait that long.  Otherwise it’ll go to some parts of the pasture that need help.  I still have chicken compost if I need it for the garden.

Lots to do, but it’s sure nice to see things growing!