First Farmers Market of the Season

And I forgot to take pictures!

It was a great market to start the year off! As usual, I forgot to pack an assortment of items - even though I made a list, some items didn't even make it on the list. Like mustard - how could I forget the mustard and plates - so we used napkins instead, and our banner, which I never did find. I did have our pop-up banner so we used that, but our name banner is packed somewhere securely and will require further digging to find.

Despite all that, it was a great market. The weather was perfect, topping out in the mid-20's. The community came out in droves to greet the vendors and welcome us back to another six months of giving up our weekends to make sure that our community has local food.

The new product - llama smokies - went over very well with sales being brisk throughout the day. In fact, we sold a little bit of everything we took - except for the meaty lamb shanks - so that made us happy.

Anyway, a great day and a great market - glad to be back!

Spring has Sprung! - well maybe . .. .

I can't believe that it has been the whole winter since I have last blogged. Part of that is that during winter there is only so many ways to say we did chores in the snow today, and part of the reason is that I was personally busy over the winter having reconciled with my husband after 14 years.

But now spring is working on arriving and things have been gearing up on the ranch for the past couple months - so it is time to update!

Over the past couple months we have had 25 lambs. Normally we would get a couple a week just from the way we breed. This year was a little different, we would have a bunch and then nothing for two weeks and then another bunch. In one week we had 12 lambs born - probably a record for us.

We have over a hundred chicks arriving in early April for our meat chick order. This year we are doing something different for our chick coop - we have purchased a travel trailer and we are renovating it to use as the chick coop. We'll be posting pictures as work progresses on it.

In April we have some sheep arriving that I've purchased from Alberta - some for the pet food order and some for breeding.

In May the Llamas are due and the local Farmers Market starts.

I can hardly wait to get back to it!!

The Chicks Have Arrived

So our final batch of meat bird chicks arrived today for this year. We are very excited! We ordered 150 chicks and when we unloaded them into their new coop we were reminded exactly how soft and silky a baby chick really is. It's like trying to catch silky water in your hand.



This is the part of the coop the chicks will be in first while they are small.

We have a special coop for chicks. When they are young for the first week or two we keep most of it blocked off. That keeps them centralized and close to food and water and heat. Once they get their sea legs we start opening it up. In about a month when they have all their feathers and are starting to bulk up we will open the access door to their outside area.

While they are still so young we will be keeping the heat lamp on so we can make sure they are warm and we can monitor the temperature. But since it is their first night, I am like, are they okay, maybe I should go check on them. I am sure they will be fine, but I really want to go peak at them.



This is what a section of the coop looks like filled with chicks,
water, and feed. The glow from overhead is from the heat lamp.

But it doesn't take them long to get going. Within the first half hour they had found their food and water and were checking everything out. It is so cute to watch them scoot around at this age!

Holding them as we move them out. They are so light and
slippery and the softest of the soft!

Resting in the box they arrived in before we take them out.



SKYFEST - Here We Come!

We are going to try something new this year. Normally we are vendors at our local farmers market from May to October - well, we try to get to as many as possible! This year we have been asked to vend at the local - regional air show - VERY EXCITING!

So next weekend you can find us watching the planes and serving up some of our home grown burgers and pepperoni!

How are the pigs doing?

So the pigs are doing awesome! The three Berkshires are growing really well - the boys are getting chunky in all the right places :)

The 6 piglets, we call them the "Pinkies" are growing okay. We got them when they were five weeks old and it took the first couple weeks for them to really adjust to the new feed. They really seem to prefer having some vegies in with their grain. The transition to the grain feed seemed to take a little longer than normal with these guys, but they are really enjoying the grain now that we have started to add their eggs and vegies to it. As they are getting older their personalities are really starting to show and they are enjoying learning how to dig.

The new pens are going great and I"m looking forward to getting the third one built this fall. But we have some new animals to show off. A couple shots of our new llamas, a couple new ewes came with lambs at side, and we had a baby lamb born a few weeks ago. The smallest lamb we have ever had born. It's now almost a month old and the size of a normal newborn. But she is a determined girl and we named her Rosey.

Chick Update

So the hen with the 5 chicks is doing really well. The chicks are growing and "mom" is keeping a close eye on all of them. With all the construction work going on they are having a good time checking things out.

Their wings about all feathered out and they are starting to get back feathers now - and they are getting big!

Pig Pen Paradise

It's been a great few weeks. Lots of great family activity and BBQ season is in full swing at our place. We have also been working on our new pig pens over the past weeks.

So we brought home Celeste and her two brothers a few weeks ago and they pretty much found every way they could to escape their pen. Nothing impresses visiting family more than herding pigs! So everyone got into it and we now have two fantastic pig pens.

One pen Celeste and her brothers will be moving into and the other will be for the new weiner pigs that are arriving next weekend. Still a few things to finish off on the pens but they are so gorgeous I couldn't wait to share pictures of the process.

Step 1 - Clear area that you are fencing. In this case we also
made a gate so that the pigs can have their own pasture to roam in.

Step 2 - Dig a trench around the fence line. Pigs like to dig down
so the first board is halfway into the trench and then a
log is buried in front of the board.

Step 3 - This is what the fence line looks like with the
buried log. Then you fill the dirt in around the log
and then place your fence boards at regular intervals.

Step 4 - Make sure you make all new gates conneting everything.
And then they have to line up with current structures.

Work progressing

Getting there.