It took four of us, and they still nearly evaded getting into the trailer, but they eventually were persuaded. So all of them are back home in their dry barn tonight. Now I need to go pick up some of that wonderful sheep poo to throw on a compost heap for next year’s garden!
Category: farm
The Dehydrator
I am taking a class about food preservation, and a couple weeks ago we learned about dehydrators. I got to bring the class dehydrator home to finish our lab assignment, and I loved it! I have never cared much for the dehydrated fruits you get from the store, but these were fresh and crisp but not so hard you’ll break a tooth. The pineapple came out like natural candy! So I wanted one bad!
This week I easily sold all my pullets (baby chickens), and actually made a profit (miracle of miracles) so I felt like I could splurge and a get a dehydrator, tah dah!
It’s really simple, just a fan and a heating element, so it blows warm air over the food trays and dries stuff out. It can be used for fruits, veg, jerky, herbs, or even drying flowers for crafts.
I did some apples and bananas, then tried peppers and pineapple. The pineapple is ridiculously good. The peppers come out crunchy and sweet – I’m going to try sprinkling them on a pasta dish.
I suppose it could be used to make dog treats!
I’m enjoying learning how to use it! It’s really going to be nice to have this summer and fall when I have too much produce from the garden, or too much fruit from the orchard. Last year I had to let a lot of pears and stuff go to the chickens because I didn’t know what to do with it all. And the herbs that went to waste at the end of the year when the plants started dying down? Into the dehydrator! I think this is going to be a very useful addition to my kitchen/garden.
Funny sheep story
After the 4H meeting broke up, I was out checking the sheep water, and I noticed one of the sheep running around like mad. Then I saw she had snagged herself on a blackberry vine, which had come loose and was stuck to her butt, and she thought it was chasing her! So she charged around the field, getting all the other sheep’s attention, until the vine fell off. It lay in the middle of the field and the flock cautiously approached it, wanting to see what this scary monster was. I went back to filling the water bucket, chuckling about how silly sheep were, then I looked up to see the flock racing past, along with another sheep who had the vine stuck on her butt!!! I just about fell over laughing! Silly sheep!
4H llama shearing party
Today we had the 4H llama club meeting at my house, and everyone brought their llamas. After a potluck and socializing, my neighbor Kelley came over and sheared the llamas. It was a good day, llamas got cleaned up for upcoming summer shows, and there were kids running all over our farm playing with dogs, harassing chickens (one ended up in the neighbor’s yard, apparently deciding that was a safer place to be until the kids were gone), and generally having a good time. Lots of fun!
 My old buddy Scoops was there. A polite gentleman, as always.
Kohl brought my old llama Patrone. He’s grown since I gave him away! Both of them, actually 🙂
Here Jamie takes a quiet moment to comfort her llama after the tension of shearing.
Funny face!
I gave the camera to the kids to take pictures of whatever they wanted, and I got back a picture of Kohl snuggling a chicken!
5 week old Chicks
My chicks are around 5 weeks old now, and I guess they’d properly be called pullets (the girls) and cockerels (the boys).
They’re still cute, and they won’t hardly hold still for pictures!
They are getting more curious about me and the great outdoors. I have been sitting and hanging out with them recently, holding scratch for them and getting them to eat out of my hand, and with that they’ve been letting me touch them and finding out that’s ok too. I haven’t been able to spend as much time with them as I’d like, but I think being gentle and predictable has helped move me up the ‘trustworthy’ scale with them. The Buffs have been the most curious and outgoing – the cochins are a bit more reserved.
I hate to sell them but I don’t have room for them all, and that’s why I bought them – to make a little extra money. Unfortunately the ads on CL right now are full of people who bought chicks in March and are eager to get rid of them, and are selling them at bargan prices. I’ll hold on to these guys a little bit longer and sell them when they are ok to be outside full time. Hopefully to urban backyard chicken keepers who don’t have room to raise their own chicks, and just want layers ready-to-go.
Barclay is a lot of help!
The sheep invasion!
My neighbor Kelley showed up with his trailer this morning
And released a whole flock of sheep into our field! These are his sheep he uses to produce lambs for the 4H kids. They had eaten down his field, so we figured why not take them for a ride around the corner and let them eat down our pasture for a bit.Â
The dogs absolutely lost their minds when they saw them!
Jack was on full beagle alert – woo woo wooooooo
Jack was on full beagle alert – woo woo wooooooo
Barclay would like to get out there and chase them.
The sheep have bells on. The bells are to frighten away the coyotes. Kelley says it works for him. They make a pleasant jingling as they graze around the field.
Alpaca shearing day!
Our 4H club has 2 alpacas that were donated for the kids to use, plus one family has nothing but alpacas. Since the alpacas get sheared a little differently than the llamas, we scheduled to get them all done at once out at the alpaca farm, Fancy Fiber Farm, yesterday. Martha and I stuffed Lucky into the back of my van and drove him up there. We arrived to find ‘packys waiting for their turn in the barn 🙂
These guys crack me up!
Tanya and Joey got to work brushing all the debris out of Lucky’s wool. He didn’t much like that, but put up with it a lot better than I expected, especially considering how much stuff he’d ground into it all winter.
Inside the shearing barn, they had a very interesting setup for doing the alpacas. They tie their feet and lay them down on a tarp and stretch them out. The alpacas actually take this quite well, and it seems like the safest way to do it for both animal and handlers.Â
Don’t you let alpacas ride in the back of your van?
More pictures and video Here
Be sure to watch the video to see how they actually got Lucky on the floor.
The 4H kids do a great job handling the animals!
Be sure to watch the video to see how they actually got Lucky on the floor.
The 4H kids do a great job handling the animals!
Watch out for rusty nails!
Yesterday the weather cleared up so I ran outside for some afternoon chores. I cleaned the chick brooder, put fresh chips down for the regular chickens, took all the dirty chips to the compost pile, and then I was walking through the garden when I saw some persistent weeds poking up out of my raised bed, so I walked around behind it to pull them. As I stepped behind the bed I felt my foot slide down onto something, and I looked down to see one of the boards I had pulled from the compost pile, and I thought I had them all turned over so if they had nails the nails were in the ground, but in this case, the nails were pointed UP!
I pulled my foot up and slid it out of my shoe and looked, hoping I had just barely poked myself – I saw two little red dots on the bottom of my sock, spreading, so I was guessing it was worse than that. I calmly tried to pull my shoe off the nails, and it wouldn’t come. I couldn’t hobble back barefoot, so I fought it for a minute, swearing at myself the whole time. It didn’t hurt so much as it made me mad because I knew it was the end of chores for the afternoon, and I had a lot I wanted to get done! I finally got the shoe off the nails and put it back on and hobbled back to the house, calling the dogs as I went – what a miracle, they came when called! On my way into the house I grabbed the phone, hobbled to the bathroom and took off the shoe and by now the sock was completely soaked in blood – bad sign. I rinsed my foot off under running water, and called Dave, told him my bonehead maneuver. He closed up the store and came home. I proceeded to follow my first aid training – if it’s ugly, cover it up! So I slapped on a sterile pad and wrapped it with some vet-wrap, then sat out on the couch with my foot up and waited for rescue.
Dave came, took me to the urgent care place, and they all seemed surprised I had come in just for this. I think burying two rusty, filthy nails deep into the bottom of your foot is just cause for going to the doctor, but what do I know? They looked at it, cleaned it, wrapped it back up, confirmed my tetanus shot was up to date, gave me a prescription for some antibiotics, charged me $100 and sent me home. I think that was probably money well spent, if only for peace of mind.
So today I am hobbling around trying not to put weight on that foot. Both nails sunk right into the ball of my foot, so it’s tricky to walk on. It aches like a son of a gun, but I wouldn’t say it really hurts unless I press on it. I think this is going to interfere with getting chores done for a couple days. Well, now it can go ahead and rain all it wants!
Farm Tour at Greengate Farms
The Small Acreage Program had a farm tour today at Greengate Farms. It is always fun to go to these and see how other people run their farms. I still only dream of having a real farm, but I learn something everytime I go to one of these. Here Kelly, the owner, talks to the group about her barn and how they built it and what they would have done different if they knew then what they know now.
They had a nice barn and a composting area next to it, and talked about how they handle all the manure – did you know horses make about 50lb a DAY?! Luckily they have someone who wants their manure for fertilizer, so they get it hauled away. But they also talked about how they used to compost it and spread it on the fields. We also learned about sacrifice areas, mud control, and runoff management.
This is her own horse, the white one, and her boarder. She runs a boarding stable/retirement home for show horses. The horses were very clean and happy and friendly 🙂
Her sweet old golden followed the group around, resting whenever we stopped to talk 🙂
And her pesky golden puppy put on a show of chewing on his leash and generally acting like a puppy whenever he had to sit still while everyone was talking.
Out in the pastures we got some tips on pasture rotation, not letting horses out on grass too early in the spring, composting, and fencing – regular and electric. Plus some pasture management. Lots of great information. It’s so much to learn, it’s a lot of help to see how people do it all successfully, even when they feel they have more to do to perfect their techniques. Just goes to show there’s always more to learn! I’m so glad there are great farmers in the area willing to share with those of us who are still trying to figure it out!
Steff Does Stuff! 