Feb. Farm/Homesteading Chat

[dublinup]

Originally Posted by raisingcropsandbabies Dublinup- All the sheep went to market? Oh that is so exciting about the new jersey! What will you name her calf? Jerseys are too sweet and fun to name! When Baby Girl and I get back from our little get away (leaving the guys for 6 days), we will be halter-breaking Maisy. DH has done it a bunch, but I have not. I've been going to the milk house with him to watch him milk after I feed the ewes, bucks, and bull in the evening... I won't be learning on Rosie (who will be gone when BamBam has her calf), but it's good to have an idea at least! haha. I've been cleaning out half of the milk parlor and found 4 milk tanks and tons of misc. from the dairy days. And a lot of junk too. haha. Farmers and their saving stuff! Sigh. Then I cleaned out the meathouse 3 days ago... it needed it bad! Scrubbed all the wood. Yesterday, DH and his friend shot, skinned, gutted, and quartered one of the cows. Then they hauled it to the meathouse. His friend went to work and DH started processing it. We will finish the rest (the other half) today. I think I bagged 80lbs of hamburger+ last night in between watching the kids. It will feel good to have it all finished and in the freezer this afternoon. Taking in farm taxes today (a week later than usual, but Dh's mom was in the hospital and didn't have their part finished). Starting to learn the paperwork side of farming because if she goes in the hospital again, we don't want to be in a lurch. Plus, it's something I can do when Baby Girl takes her nap. Did you all have a nice Valentine's Day? I took the kids to the store in the morning to spend their coin jars and I pitched in a tiny bit as their Valentine present. One of the boys said we have to have heart shaped pancakes on the day and I neglected to do that so we are stringing out Vday into a Valentine Weekend... easier to not jampack it all, I guess. So I better get crackin on those pancakes! Have a great day!

Yep, all the sheep. Well except 50-100 of them, which will be like a hobby after caring for thousands. The BLM has been suspending permits left and right and we have literally had bands of sheep hours apart by driving over two states. Then the cows are in a totally different part of the state. My poor father in law is 70 and for every 2 nights he spends at the home ranch, he spends 5 at the outpost ranches. The decision was mainly because with that difficulty coupled with rising feed, the buying offers were pretty hard to refuse.
I might end up getting a third Jersey in July when I have to dry out my new girl for calving. Or maybe I'll take another break and try to focus on the garden. My husband calls me a plant hater. I just have other things that usually get my attention before the tomatoes. I do enjoy the garden, but I'm not going to get any awards for my sustenance skills.

[aiyana4969]

Originally Posted by dublinup My girls

Awwwwwww!

[aiyana4969]

Another 6" of snow lest night Good thing that in between these storms (Which have been dumping feet rather than inches so this was a baby storm), it'll warm up long enough to rain a day and melt most of it off. Which reminds me I have to get the snow gear into the wash rather quick so the kids can play in it today. The little one didn't make it out of her gear in time when whe needed to pee and DD#3 slipped and fell in a pile of dog poo yesterday.

Today is going to be a cooking day I think. I really need to make up some freezer meals and things for DH and I to take to work and I saw a post on FB on how to make pizza rolls, they look like dinner rolls but have cheese and pepperoni in the middle, sounds fun!
especially if I can freeze them to take out on days the kids have friends over. Need to make biscuts for the freezer (I love making them for breakfasts with jam or honey). I also need to make some bread to go with dinner tonite, it's speghetti so I'm not sure if I want to make rolls or bread. I'm thinking seasoned multigrain rolls (I have an organic 6 grain flour and WW bread flour).

DH is also going to be setting up shop lights with the proper bulbs for plant growth in the basement. He doesn't like my laundry room set up. He's very OCD and really doesn't like turning the laundry room into a greenhouse for a few months a year. But that's ok with me! We have lots of shelves down there in the spare room. I may need to take the electric heater down there on super cold days (tho it stays fairly warm down there without heat).

[dublinup]

Aiyana, I must admit, I'm not envious. While I love snow and all it's beauty, I'm soooooo not winter's biggest fan. I am counting the minutes to see flowers blooming again. 95 degrees can knock on my door any minute and I'd throw a party!

[slimy72]

Hi thinking I ought to join in here. I haven't spent much time on this forum but it kind of fits for me. We raise suffolk/whethersire sheep for club/show lambs-we're just a small hobby farm. Dh was raised around the Family ranch where they run 2500 head of sheep and another 200+ cows. I was raised showing Simmental cattle. We both teach Ag Ed and love it. Right now we also have chickens, a guanaco (for fiber and to guard the sheep) and two dogs. We have a good working border collie, we've bred her before and are thinking about it again but I can't find a working male I'm happy with. I'm hoping to have a garden again this summer, but even if I don't the family raises a huge garden (think 10 acre garden) up at the ranch and I do a lot of canning from produce from there. The last few summers we've had to much going on to raise one (dh was diagnosed with MS and then celiacs and we've had other family health issues so we cut down on "extras"). So that's me in a nutshell, hope it's ok if I join in.

[missc]

Hi Slimy72, nice to meet you! The Guanaco looks like fun, I've never known they were named that! I totally understand not doing a garden for a few years, they sound busy. It's great that you can use your families, what a blessing! How is your husband doing? I work at a rehab hospital, we work with a lot of people that have MS, and my husband has some close relatives with MS.
AFM, Squeeeeeeeee! Happy Seed Day! I had to work M-F this week (bah) so it was such a lovely surprise to come home to SEEDS! Tonight I'm going to enlist in T's help to move around the living room so we can put the seeds right in front of our south-facing window. And in clear view where I might remember to water them, lol.
The farm is good. The farrier came out Wednesday for the horses, so the colt is ready to work. Other than that there isn't much going on other than chores .
The kids are good too! Baby J is teething and is about to break open with a full-toothed smile.
Have a Christmas party tomorrow for T's fire department (better late than never, lol). We played indoor soccer yesterday and I am sooooo sore! So I think I'm going to lay on the couch tonight and watch Shark Tank....and maybe knit, that doesn't include leg movement!
How are y'all??

[FernHollow]

Mind if I join? We have a 10 acre hobby farm in Western WA. Right now we have a small herd of Nubian dairy goats and a dozen hens. Oh and a pair of Peking ducks that I keep around because their waddling and quacking entertains me We raised meat birds and a 5000sqft garden last year in addition to planting a small orchard. Not to mention we did all the barn and fencing from scratch early last spring. It was a TON of work and we are planning on taking it slow this year because we may be looking to relocate (long story). So I'll be sticking to our current flock, dealing with our 3 does kidding, raising the wethers for meat and just doing a small garden. I know with homeschooling 5 kids that still sounds like a ton, but it is much more reasonable time wise than last year. I am really excited for our first kidding season and looking forward to baby goats in just over a month!

[aiyana4969]

new people!

CAN'T.WAIT.FOR.SPRING! So tired of winter and we traditionally still have a month or more of this mess.

Work's been kinda crazy. To the point where we are not getting lunches. And then patients compain I've been here for 3 hours, I'm hungry and I want to go home. Sometimes you just want to say "It's the friken Emergency Room, there's no such thing as a quick visit, if you're here then you should be bad enough off that waiting thru lunch time for test results to come back shouldn't be a problem, oh and by the way, I've been here for 12 hours, haven't eaten a thing, been holding my aching bladder for over 2.5 hours and I want to go home too!" We have so many people in for colds and flu that have had symtoms for a week or so and it's like, ummm... if you've suffered a week surly you could have waited until the morning to see your provider, all in the area take either walk in or same day appointments if you call in the morning, even until noon on saturday. So may people come to the ER for cold, exema, wanting to know hoe far along they are so claim they're spotting (when a pelvic shows absolutely no evidence of spotting and the patients will admit to a lowly CNA that they want an ultrasound to find out how far along they are and didn't want the few weeks wait thier doctor set them up with), or the drunks detoxing, always the same ones. The beligerant 'psych' patients that are trying to skip out on an arrest.

But there are perks too I suppose, like keeping the 94YO nanna from wandering around by talking to her even though she insist that she's 36 with two daughters 18 and 21 and that she really needs to clean the snow off her car and see her nephew, while the doctor sews her hand up in my lap (she lives at a nursing home and is an extreme fall risk because she's 36 in her mind and 94 in reality, she fell and sliced her hand somehow).


on the homesteading front: not much new other than my seedlings are doing great (and I have quite a few more and really need to get more soil so I can replant them and start some more. My 7 hens ar enow laying between 5-7 eggs a day and we can't keep up, and I still want a few more hens once we have time for a more relaxed morning, I'll be making eggs often for breakfast.

Took the kids to a jump house arena yesterday (70miles away), let them skip school to do it (it's wayyyy too busy outside of school time), they had a blast but really should have been more tuckered out than they were. Though, my 7 YO and 3 YO ended up with some serious leg cramps last night from all the extra exercise. Unfortunatly no one over age 12 is allowed on them so no exercise for me.

well I suppose, I have to get a stew in the crockpot, call the local hardware store to see if they have any soil in (so I can re-pot my seedlings and start more), make bread, clean off the top shelf down stairs and clean up that room so I can move my seedlings in there. And snuggle my cranky 3 Yo until she passes out for a morning nap since she is already whiny and cranky and it's not even 8am!