Life, Truth, and Cackleberries: One Month of Farming

Moved the ducks onto pasture this week.
The ducks do what we call "the cyclone of death"
when they are scared, you can see them spinning
in circles in this picture.

This week marks our 1 month of being farmers. We still have lots to learn but we are starting to be able to do a lot of things on the farm by ourselves. We have been moving animals around everywhere. Spring is in full swing! Cows, sheep and chickens are moved everyday to new pasture. Ducks are moved every other day. On top of that pigs are still being moved every 10 days.

The ducks first time being outdoors
sometimes shows. It took them
a couple of days but they figured out to stay
away from the nets. None of these ducks were hurt. Just
took awhile to get them untangled!

We also moved the laying chicks from the brooder to an open air pavilion. That was lots of fun. We had to set up a little corral in the corner of the brooder and chase the thousands of little chicks into the corral and close it up. We then had to catch every one and put them in a crate, counting everyone as we went.

Helping a duck get her foot unstuck.

The brooder started out with 1300 chicks and when we were through putting them all in crates, we counted 1225 chicks. That is very good considering it was well under 10 percent, which is what we aim for. The chicks consist of Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and New Hampshires.

Matt grinding bolts off of an old trailer.
He couldn't find any other eye protection
thus the amazing welding goggles

We also received a shipment of broiler chicks. There were about 800 of them on arrival. They are super cute as chicks but are not too good looking once they get older. They will be ready for processing in as little as 8 to 10 weeks. We are looking forward to learning how to process a chicken. It will be really cool to see every step from chick to dinner plate. The chicks, especially broiler chicks, are very volatile their first weeks of life. So we have to make sure it is a contant 95 degrees in the brooder with plenty of food

and water to go around. We found a mouse stuck in the brooder with the chicks. It was quite comical seeing the little chicks chasing and pecking at the mouse, but the mouse started biting back so we had to chase him out.

Rachel bottle feeding the "store pet" Lambchops.
She was abandoned at birth so we raised her. She now
thinks she is a human and will be the official Farm store
pet. Where customers can come and see her.

Pigs curiously tasting my water hose while I
fill their water tanks.

Layer chicks in their crates being transported to the outside
pavilion. You don't know how much 1200 of something is
until you have to catch everyone.

Josh and Clair putting chicks into crates while
counting them.

The sheep were moved to a "permanent pasture". Every day we let them out of the fenced in area and let them roam free. Then at evening we entice them with bags of alfalfa to get them back in the safe permanent paddock. It has been working good so far, but sometimes we have some trouble with a couple stragglers and have to go running through the woods and hills after them.

Happy layer chicks in their new outside
home.

This past week was Matt's birthday. Rachel's parents came up from Florida and took us out to eat in Harrisonburg, VA to a privately owned restaurant called, "Local Chop and Grill". It was the best dining experience we ever had. Great atmosphere and service, plus the best part was all the food was locally supplied! Our farm supplies them with duck eggs, chicken, and other assorted items. It was great to finally see a well-ran restaurant supporting the local food movement like that. It shows that something like that can be done all over America, and be profitable and be a whole new dining experience. We also had a great time hanging out with Rachel's parents and getting to show them around the farms. It was good to be with family again!

Old car on property. There are so many tractors and old cars
everywhere. Great photo opportunities.

Rachel putting up the permanent sheep fencing

Matt's chopped salad at Local Chop and Grill. Yep
Those are our hard boiled duck eggs on top!

A lamb that was just born while we were moving the sheep
back into the permanent paddock. Mother sheep tend to forget
that they just had a baby when there is alfalfa waiting for them.
Matt had to carry him into the paddock.

Matt had the opportunity to feed hay to the cows with the tractor for the first time. We just moved the cows out of their winter paddock and onto fresh pasture. They absolutely loved it after eating dry grass for months.

You can see the difference between day old cow
pasture and new pasture. We are just about to
move them in this picture. They get pretty excited.

We also started to move into our camper. It is a lot bigger than we thought it was, after we pulled the extension out. We are excited to move in and have our own place again. It is really nice and even has outside speakers! We are looking forward to having all our fellow farmers over for picnics and grillings on late summer work nights.

Also, the Deels (Josh and Leena who are managers at the farm) bought their first set of goats! They will have 8 meat goats and 1 milk goat. We are excited to help them out with that. Goat is actually in higher demand than sheep or beef. So it is a very

lucrative venture to get into right now. They have lots of benefits especially if your property has lots of brambles and thorny plants. The goats will eat anything! They are great for clearing brushy areas for future pasture for cows and sheep.

Rachel and I are actually going to be starting our own small bee hive. We have to look into the costs and logistics of it all, but once we have everything set up we will be sure to let everyone know! You may have the opportunity of getting our honey in the mail! We can't wait.

Josh and Leena's goats!

Layer chicks enjoying their "tear drop"
water system. Rachel set the tear drop and bucket
up Matt put the float valve system on the bucket.

Matt filling up the water "cube"

Enjoyin' the good life.

Rachel helping Matt fill the Feeder set's water tank.

Filling up the sow's feed cube from the grain
silo.

Cows moved to new pasture

Matt's favorite thing that happened this week is when there was a new born calf laying in the bushes and the mother wouldn't leave his side. This was a problem because we were trying to move all of the cows to new land. So Matt ran and grabbed the calf and jumped onto the back of the ATV while Mark drove with the mother chasing us the entire time at a full run. The calf was fighting and it took everything in Matt to hold onto him. Mark would slow down just enough to let the mother get uncomfortably close to Matt. Once they got to the new pasture they got some distance and placed the calf on the ground and high-tailed it out of there. Matt wishes he could have gotten it on video. Rachel, for the first time drove a truck with a trailer, well a manure spreader, she did really well. She also had the chance to drive a skid steer! Thanks again for all of you who follow our blog. We are so glad we can share these great times we are having with you all. I hope these experiences enrich your lives as they do ours. We love you and hope you enjoyed!!!