Our farm continues to grow. Lightning, Skittles, and Chocolate Chip are doing fabulous, except they can't keep up with the wildly growing pasture! Sometimes one will call out fearfully because she has lost the other two in the towering grass. We chose sheep because we wanted something that would keep the pasture down, would be low maintenance, wouldn't cost a fortune to over-winter (feed during the winter), and wouldn't escape continuously (like goats do). Sheep seemed to be the right choice. Plus we have a couple sheep-farming neighbors so we can share resources and bounce ideas off of them. We're starting with three ewes and will get a ram eventually. We are hoping for some adorable little lambs next spring. We will keep the ewe-babies to raise up and sell the ram-babies. We chose Katahdin because they seem do do well in our area and because they are hair sheep! They develop a woolly undercoat in the winter but shed that for an entirely hair coat in the summer- no shearing required!!
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| The belly scratch |
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| Don't think you can walk through the pasture without a herd of piggies running to greet you! |
Last month we picked up our weaners which we will grow in to hogs and to whom we will say goodbye in October. Their names are Happy, Tinkerbell, Cow, and Balloon-Ear. Have you figured out yet that the children choose the animal names? The pigs are such fun creatures, very friendly and love ear scratches which quickly morph into belly scratches, just like when petting a dog. They have a way of getting you to rub their belly whether you planned on it or not. Of course they are growing quickly and outgrew their initial pen within a few weeks. The other day I moved them to pasture also. What an experience! Training pigs to an electric fence is a startlingly LOUD experience. We didn't quite research the "how to" process well enough initially and the pigs jumped right OVER the fence instead of back from the fence. So we had to corral them, return them to enclosure, and spend another week training to hot wire. Within a week though they had a healthy respect for the fence...however they were also pretty attached to their hog-home. They weren't too interested in leaving it in order to move to open pasture. With some treats, coaxing, and corralling they finally made it to open pasture. They were rewarded with a mud pit and donuts.
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| Pig and sheep, unsure of each other |
After living in a temporary home for 8 months, the chickens finally have be a beautiful new chicken coop. We debated adding an enclosed run but they are so happy having free reign of the acreage. We decided it's worth the risk of losing one here and there in order to keep the entire flock happy and healthy. Currently we have 9 hens but I think some chicks may be in the works in the fall. Shhhh, don't tell the kids, they will never stop asking about chickies.
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| These guys built |
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| These guys painted |
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| I added the finishing touches and Capper tried out the chicken door |
Our farm continues to grow. Lightning, Skittles, and Chocolate Chip are doing fabulous, except they can't keep up with the wildly growing pasture! Sometimes one will call out fearfully because she has lost the other two in the towering grass. We chose sheep because we wanted something that would keep the pasture down, would be low maintenance, wouldn't cost a fortune to over-winter (feed during the winter), and wouldn't escape continuously (like goats do). Sheep seemed to be the right choice. Plus we have a couple sheep-farming neighbors so we can share resources and bounce ideas off of them. We're starting with three ewes and will get a ram eventually. We are hoping for some adorable little lambs next spring. We will keep the ewe-babies to raise up and sell the ram-babies. We chose Katahdin because they seem do do well in our area and because they are hair sheep! They develop a woolly undercoat in the winter but shed that for an entirely hair coat in the summer- no shearing required!!
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