Farm Maternity Ward

Baby turkeys hatching in the kitchen. Baby chickens and poults (turkeys) in brooders in the back porch. Two pregnant ewes and three pregnant goats hanging out in the garage. One very pregnant pig ready to move to her private quarters later today. One turkey hen brooding a nest of about 30 turkey eggs. Yep, pregnant farm animals and babies are everywhere!
The spring chores are gearing up here. Earlier in the week Nate and I cleaned out the barn, yesterday we cleaned out the goat shed. My body is feeling the effects of a winter spent not shoveling, suddenly thrown back into the task.

Saturday mornings are now spent watching a large number of children chase balls at soccer. Kohen loves it- even though last Saturday was miserably cold and rainy. Today looks like it will be a beautiful day.

Freshly hatched turkey poult.

The school year is quickly winding down, and summer plans are unfolding. June looks to bring String Camp, Bible School, some Annalise time, Timberdays and a family reunion. In addition I have doubled my own garden space in addition to beginning to work on the garden space for the farm next door. Cattle will be coming in just over a week, and we have yet to put a single post in the ground. The corral lumber is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, so then the fencing fun can begin. So far two of the cows have calved. I cannot wait to see the hairy babies!

Gertie's Story: When we brought the red wattles home the expectation was piglets around mid-June. I've been getting progressively concerned with how big Gertrude is looking. I'm thinking there may be a chance that she had an accidental breeding prior to leaving her original farm. I have to keep it as a possibility since I have been unable to get in touch with her breeders: they are not responding to email, and their phone has been disconnected. Hence, Nate and I scrambling to turn the goat shed and pen into a pig maternity ward. The plan is to move her later today and giver her her own space, more feed, and some extra attention. I'm very excited for our first litter of baby red wattles!

Poultry News: We had 20 chicken eggs and 14 turkey eggs in the incubator. We managed to have only one chicken hatch, and I took pity on the thing after three days and the boys and I headed to the farm store and picked up four more chicks for company: 2 production reds for Kohen- named Red Pepper and Red Apple. Two gold laced wyandottes for Isaiah with the names of TreeCutter and Tornado.

We have had seven turkeys hatch, one didn't make it and the other six are doing well. I'll probably clean the incubator out today the last two that have started to hatch did not survive to completely break out of the shell. However one of our turkey hens is currently residing on a large nest, so my hopes are for her to hatch out a brood naturally.

Our week was also busy with a sick boy. Croup, severe enough to warrant nebulizer treatments and steroids- and two days of missed work for this mom. He was still coughing some last night, but seems to be doing better.

The sun just broke over the trees- and is now shining directly in my eyes as I sit typing at the table. Guess that's my sign I better do some chores, feed some hungry animals, make some coffee, pack a soccer bag and get ready for a new day.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Spring...where are you?

Kohen with the red girls Gertrude and Gwendalyn.

I've got it, the spring bug that is. Yesterday I sat down with my calendar and realized it is less than four weeks till lambs could arrive. Not a happy thought when every outside surface is buried under snow and ice.

Our plan is/was to lamb in the barn this year. Novel concept right? The past two years lambing has taken place in the garage. Nate the great does a nice job of converting out two stalls into a large pen and four lambing jugs. The concern now is if the snow will be gone enough to move the hogs out of the barn and into their pasture pen, easier said then done. From there we would set up jugs (small pens the ewe and lambs are located to, assists with observation and bonding) and move the sheep into the barn. I admit the garage had its advantages, namely an eight step walk from the house, convenient on middle of the night checks.

I do realize that we live in Minnesota, where the weather is known to make crazy shifts, but I don't want to count on that.

Vaccines have been ordered, the shearer called, I'm trying to get the pieces I can control taken care of, and hoping that the weather turns around. Unfortunately, our forecast includes snow in the next few days.

The animals are getting ready for spring. Turk is currently in the tree gobbling and displaying for the hens, who happen to be on the ground. The chickens have increased their egg production, the goats are getting fat (they aren't due until May), my seed starting materials have at least made it to the back porch, and the boys are talking about novel things like gator driving, grass, and mud. I spent some time with the sheep yesterday, and felt udders on a few of the friendlies. Darla surprise me most of all. She has some good development. I'm excited to see what Isaiah's favorite sheep and Marshmallow will present us this spring. It will be Darla's first lambing.

I get anxious to get the sheep sheared, it's so much easier to see the condition of everyone. It looks like Jacobs is carrying twins again, but I'm a bit concerned about Pamela, she's one of our oldest girls and has started to look a bit swaybacked. She also lost one of her horns which had been cracked since last spring. I get so excited at the thought of new babies, and watching my ewes with great mothering abilities take care of their babies. Nate thinks that all the lambs should be market lambs this year, and that our flock should shrink a bit. I refuse to make any decisions yet.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is June, and not having to use 2 1/2 gallons of gas each day to drive to work. Mukwah will be much happier when he gets more free time too.

Today is a busy day too. Nate and my dad are headed out to pick up our beef. We bought a whole this year and it's been hanging for nine days. The guys have converted a side room of the morton building into a meat shop. I'll spend the day with freezer paper, a sharpie, and tape, lots of tape. Tonight will be capped off with some fresh cut steaks on a wood fired grill (coals taken out of the outside wood boiler and thrown in the webber.) My mouth is watering.

Current Residents/For Sale

Our little bit of a farm has grown a lot in the last four years. It currently houses the following:
31 sheep: 2 rams, 13 shetland ewes, 1 icelandic ewe, 1 jacobs ewe, 14 shetland/shetland cross lambs.
1 donkey
3 goats: saanen/nubian crosses
18 turkeys: (Turk and Henny, along with 4 poults hatched Friday, and 12 2monthers that joined us yesterday.)
20-something chickens, standard and bantam
1 barn cat
1 farm dog
1 house cat

Now that the barn is going up I need hay to fill the beautiful hay loft. In order to fill the loft I need hay, in order to buy hay I need money. SO.... I'm offering for sale the following:
ewes:
Fiona (icelandic) $150, black iset
Kizzy (3/4 shetland) $100,
Sugar (7/8 shetland) $100,
Plum (7/8 shetland) $100
Manda (shetland) $100
rams:
Marshmallow (shetland) $150
Jimmer (suffolk/shetland) $150
lambs:
I may also have some lambs for sale. I have to contact past lamb meat customers to determine how many we are butchering this fall.

I still have not decided on my keeper ewes for this year. Depending on how many adult ewes I am able to sell/butcher I will decide. My goal is to be down to 15-17 sheep to winter.
If you are interested in any of the above sheep, please let me know. We would also be open to trades for beef, hog, or hay. Please contact me at tifanybriggs at yahoo dot com.

Adding On

Yesterday we celebrated four years of living in this house, along with the hubby's birthday. It was a good day, and a busy one. We hosted our "Barn Raising- Take 2" day. Barn Raising-Take 1 occurred last fall, with limited success, for lack of labor. Take 2 was much more successful. All told we had eight friends and family helping throughout the day, and were able to get quite a lot done. Decking on the second floor, "nailers" on the first floor, and three walls up on the second story. My two days of cooking culminated with our feast yesterday: smoked turkey, brisket, and lamb, fresh bread, assorted salads and sides, and blueberry pies and cake for dessert. Lots of work, but worth it, along with lots of leftovers!

I should probably put a disclaimer below this picture- I wouldn't recommend my husband's methods of working on a ten foot ladder, balance on two boards on top of seven foot scaffolding, with hard ground and piles of lumber beneath.

We "added on" a bit more in the turkey department this weekend as well. Our turkey hen hatched out four poults on Friday, Nate quickly put a fence around her nest along the garage to protect them from the fox that are still in the neighborhood. Today the boys and I took a short road trip to trade an ewe lamb for 12 half grown turkeys. We'll be eating good this winter!

It's amazing to me when I look back and think of all we have done in the last four years to see how much we have accomplished. Sometimes in the "wanting more" mode I forget how much we have gained and completed. There are SO many things we still want to accomplish. Finishing the barn obviously, fencing in more land for the sheep, more remodeling and work on the house, landscaping, sauna, workshop, the list is endless. I am so thankful for what we do have, and for what I know we are capable of in the future. All with lots of hard work! The help and support of family and friends sure doesn't hurt either! Thanks everyone!

One of these things is not like the other...

If you look passed the messy nesting box, to the contents, do you notice one egg that looks quite different? More like a turkey egg than a chicken egg perhaps? Yup, our turkey hen laid her first egg today, and she was kind enough to do it in a nesting box in the coop so that I could collect. Now to get enough to incubate...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turk and Christmas

Hmmm... Christmas?

Old Turk is happy for another reprive this year, he doesn't realize that we like meat that is chewable!

Not Sure About the Critters 'Round Here...

This is the scene that greeted me when I headed out to do chores tonight. One of our turkey hens had managed to get herself into the ram lamb pen, and wasn't at all sure how to get out. Have to admire her resourcefulness, she chose the mellow Marshmallow to give her a lift. He didn't bolt, or panic. Marsh just nudged her feathers as if to say, move on please. She was in this position long enough for me to see her and run to the house for the camera. I took pity on her after three pictures and went and hoisted her from Marshmallow's back over the fence, where she promptly ran back to the coop. Sorry for the quality, our dailylight is fading fast these days!

This is an example of the usual pictures of Marshmallow I end up with. He was one of Good Mama's twins from this Spring. His brother Cream had the traumatic beginning and did not make it. Well, we spent a lot of time in those first two weeks trying to help Cream, and Marshmallow must have realized that people aren't too bad. So far there have been no problems with him being too pushy. He wants a scratch of the horns, and when you shove him, he goes back to eating. Current thoughts are that we will use him on a group of ewes this fall. He has the best fleece of all the ram lambs, and has the Good Mama/Bam lines that we want to carry on.

Well the first day of school is completed. I do have to admit to getting a bit emotional when I viewed the chaos of our kindergarten wing this and realized that next year my son will be in the midst of it. I feel like I was just expecting him!

Nate is still working, so I was flying solo doing chores tonight. Not a real big deal, but I've gotten spoiled having him around to help. Chickens, ducks, turkeys, bunny, not a big deal. The meatbird chicks are pretty easy too. It just involves dragging their pen to a new stretch of clean grass, and filling the feeders and checking their water. I'll plug in the heat lamp when I head out to lock up the chickens and ducks. For some reason they are roosting later and later, I don't think they want to accept that fall is coming either. I also had to fill mineral in the ram lamb pen and for the ewes and ewe lambs in the pasture along the river. This is pretty straight forward task. The ewes also needed water tonight, which we've been hauling in the infamous rubbermaid trash can/water hauler, in the trailer behind the garden tractor. Sounds pretty easy too, right? It would be if not for a lamb ram named Marshmallow, who knows his name. He sees me approach the gate with the tractor and bee lines for me. Some shoves and he moves just enough for me to squeeze the lawn tractor through the gate. Quickly jump off and shove the gate shut before all seven of the little buggers break out. (Have a shared that they have the richest pasture, filled with beautiful clover? The grass is always greener...) Across the ram pen and approach the gate to the ewe's pen. By now they have heard the garden tractor, which they associate with food, and come running from all corners. Ease the tractor through the gate, and get outsmarted by a donkey who kicks up her heals as she runs into the ram pen. Not a real big deal, but I want her protecting the ladies along the river, not the rammie lambies. Fill the mineral, fill the water, give a couple of pats, and then spend five minutes coaxing Daisy Donkey back into the pen with the girls. Then drive back across the ram pen, weaving through Marshmallow and his counterparts, who show no fear when I am returning without water sloshing out of the sides of the trailer. I managed to get the tractor out successfully and latched the gate. I returned to give Marshmallow a quick scritch scratch, and then headed back to the house. Just another night along the Rice River.

Garden, Garden, Cross Your Poles

The forecast for our area is 32 degrees for tonight. Since we are in a valley along the river, we usually get colder. The linen closet has been emptied of all available sheets and most of the plants have been covered. How can it freeze before I have a single ripe tomato? We had a delicious dinner tonight of pasta with fresh picked garden goods: beans, peas, swiss chard, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, parsley, tarragon, dill and basil. It was heavenly, but not what I want to think of as my big garden meal of the year. So fingers crossed that we are still producing after tomorrow morning. The good news is it looks like a warm up after this cold spell.
In other news, we have new additions. A trip to the Carlton Chicken Swap resulted in the purchase of three turkey hens. They are 4-6 month old bourbon red/narragansetts. Turk quickly began courting (presenting and drumming), and the hens were making cute cooing noises to him.
We also came home with some hot salsa, raspberry jam, 20 pounds of pickling cukes, a lionhead bunny, and some killer beef sticks. Oh, and 900 pounds of feed. (The Carlton Feed Mill has good prices and our poultry likes their feed. I'll try and get pictures of the new additions up tomorrow.
We also moved the ram lambs into the big field, and moved the meatbird chicks into their styling chicken tractor. A chicken tractor is a moveable pen so that we can keep them on fresh grass. Of course with the cold weather expected they are covered with a tarp and have a heat lamp.

Annalise Up North

One of the joys of living 'Up North' is that we get visitors. Visitors who want to experience what we get to enjoy every day.

Nate's mom, brother-in-law, and niece are up for a visit. Annalise has enjoyed walks, playing, swimming, sand, cousin hugs, and animals. Lots of animals. For a city girl she jumped right into the farm chores and fuzzy kisses and hugs. No fears of feathered or fleeced beasts. She loves them all.
Annalise enjoying Pfiefer Lake.

Isaiah, Nate, and Annalise, chilling in the hammock. Kisses for J.J. Checking out the view between Hee-haw's ears.

Having two toddlers in the house that are only four weeks apart in age is a true delight. The way they interact, and copy each other is wonderful to watch. Annalise is the master of sign, which Isaiah has begun to drift away from in favor of words (the louder the better.) But, in watching Annalise he has made her own customized sign for 'drink'. They don't like meals when their high chairs are on either side of the dining room, they can't take their eyes off each other. If one gets a piece of cheese, you better come through for the other cousin. Kohen feels a bit put out by all the toddler bonding, but is managing.

Why We Have Chickens...

Robin in Residence

Nate called me when I was on my way home today, to let me know of the surprise he found in the chicken coop. He informed me that we must have had a robin lay an egg in the nesting box. Along with the ten typical sized eggs, was this bit of an egg. Obviously it is from one of the aruacanas, because it is light green-blue in color.

Why the picture on the stairs you ask? Was I setting my husband up for a slippery surprise? No, these were Nate's house project for this week. They are a vast improvement on the previous climbers. Think 90 year old farmhouse. Think cracks, creaks, popping nails, and wobbles. Think inferior building: instead of three stringers (the long boards that are notched and form the frame for your stairs) think two stringers, and then the triangle cut-out pieces nailed to the old log wall to form a stringer along the wall side. Yeah really, if it weren't so dark outside I would go and take a picture of what he took out. How many thousands of feet have walked, stomped, stumbled on those hazard ridden stairs? Not to mention how many times feet have slipped and butts have hit those slippery, too short treads? (Mine did last week, not pretty. Picture black and blue on a posterior region, in the shape of Australia.) I feel your grimace, right in my ***.

Ok, back to poultry news. We moved the chicks, who are now closer to chickens, out to the coop this past week. They do not venture out too far into the yard, but are happy with the extra room. We also have three duck hens setting on nests full of eggs right now. I am hopeful we get some ducklings. Henrietta, our Japanese fantail bantam, has been setting for the past few weeks, and I was expecting chicks any day. For some reason she left her nest for quite a while today, so I'm not as optimistic that there will be babies this go around. This would be the third year she has hatched out her own offspring, so I am not going to question her abilities.

Happy Easter!

From all of us here. Including the chickens, who took care of dyeing the eggs this year.

And the little lambs who met each other and the rest of the flock yesterday.

Celebrate the Day!

Working and Waiting

Long time no post, long time no spring. This weather is driving me crazy! So crazy Nate and I ponder moving to a warmer climate. We are forecast to get 6-8 inches of snow Tuesday. Not a lot different from this time last year, but still not fun.
WORKING-We've been busy working on projects, mostly sheep projects. We've converted the garage into a lambing barn. With our weather experiences I am terrified of the girls lambing in the wet, icy, frozen pasture. We have about half the garage sectioned off with sheets of oxboard, and a nice gate/door and three lambing jugs set up on the other side. I've got my lambing kit packed and ready to go, and am getting SO nervous for lambs. Hopefully our first lambing season treats us well.
Last weekend my mom came out and we cleaned the chicken coop of six months of yuk. The chickens don't seem to care, but I sure do. We also were gifted a few more laying hens last Sunday so hopefully egg production will increase enough that they can start paying for some of their feed.
School and consulting has been very busy too. In fact, I need to quit blogging and start writing a report from my visit on Friday.
WAITING-We have made over thirty phone calls to try and get a shearer. I finally had a new shearer lined up for today, and then he called to reschedule for next Saturday. In the meantime our shearer from last year called to let me know he'll be up on Friday. So Friday is shearing day. Nate will have a busy day since I'll be at work. The boys will be home with him too, so hopefully some of my family can help out and save the day. Anyone looking for some work/entertainment on Friday?
Nervously waiting for lambs. According to the lambing calendar we could be expecting babies as soon as Thursday. I only witnessed four of the girls bred, and that wasn't until December. So that leaves six that could lamb sooner. We are as ready as we can be. I would really have liked everyone sheared about four weeks ago, but with the shearer shortage and weather, we'll make do. I'm nervous that some of the girls are in poor condition. Some of them I have no worries about. I just want to be able to have a better visual of what is going on. I was out checking for bags on Friday. Sunny, Kizzy, Good Mama and Jacobs are all definitely bagging. Everyone else was too hard to check either because of too much wool or too much flightiness. I know Bunny and Fiona have not had lambs before, would it be common for them to not show a bag as quickly as the experienced mamas? Impatience and nerves!
Finally, the topic I began this post with. We are waiting for spring, waiting for ground, waiting for green. I guess we'll keep waiting a bit longer!

Happy Valentines!

I'm a day late, but happy Valentine's to everyone!

Gramma Jan with the heartbreaker boys.

Gramma Jan was kind enough to drive up from Rochester since we didn't head down. She was our deliver driver, bringing heart shaped pizza, and wine kits. She also made a stop at Sam's Club for us. Thanks Gramma!
Kohen shows off his heart shaped pizza.

Poor Isaiah is still under the weather. Along with his bronchitis and teeth coming in, he also has a sore butt from his antibiotic. Rough stuff. Thankfully I have tomorrow off for Presidents Day so he can get another day to recuperate.

We've received the final word that Bam and Ris had liver flukes. We are taking precautionary measures and planning on worming the entire flock with valbazen in case anyone else has liver flukes. Since it was a sunny morning and Jan was here to watch Isaiah we headed out to weigh everyone. We have a most unsophisticated method. It involves a small sheet of oxboard, and a bathroom scale. Nate catches and lifts the sheep to me, I hold them while standing on the scale, he reads the weight, and I record it on my chart (alphabetically of course!) The scale sits on the sheet of oxboard. Scar won the award for heaviest, at 103 pounds! Well, the heaviest of those we weighed. We chose not to weigh Sunny, she is just too big. I'll guestimate her weight when it is time to worm. I pulled records from when we wormed last April. Most of the ewes are twenty pounds heavier than they were then. Of course that was after shearing, but their condition is also much improved.

Turk was happy to enjoy the morning sunshine. He was strutting his stuff for the camera. We are still discussing raising some heritage turkeys this year. Let me know if you are in the area and interested.

Sunny Days

Feeding Time.

Kohen, Dad and I were out doing chores today and I had a chance to pull out the camera. It is a beautiful sunny day, and the temperature is currently 15 degrees ABOVE zero! We had to take some time to enjoy it since it is supposed to be very cold this next week. My dad hauled alfalfa for the sheep, Kohen and I refilled shelters with straw, and I did a visual check on everyone's condition. The only issue I found was a small sore on the side of the Jacobs ewe's head. It looks like a sore from sticking her head through the feeder. With her horns it is easier for her to get rubbed the wrong way. I also checked the conditions of eyelids, and they all were quite pink, so I think we are doing ok with our worming protocol. The donkeys have gotten very fat and we need to figure out a way to avoid them getting the alfalfa. I've thought about moving Lucy and Daisy in with Hee-Haw, but we don't want any accidental breedings. Sugar is growing! She's still small, but about twice the size of when we got her this fall! Being so small, she gets right into the hay, as her fleece can attest to.
Hee-haw enjoys some oats, complements of his boy.

Along with the four leggeds I spent some time with the feathereds. The coop door was not wanting to shut because of ice so Dad and a pocket knife took care of that. I've also decided that the seven bantams living in the old goat shed can stay in the old goat shed. We tried catching them and only succeeded in scattering them in the pine and spruce trees and one hen even flew across the field! They are the bantams that were hatched out by our Japanese Fan-tails this summer, and we never tried to tame them. I love that they free range all over and eat bugs and ticks in the summer. Hopefully they will make it through this next cold snap alright. They are shacked up with the seven ducks that remain, so they have plenty of food and get watered at least once a day. They are low maintenance in the summer, and don't come near the coop, simply eating bugs and seeds they forage for. Currently, there are three roosters and four hens together, along with at least four more bantams who prefer the civilized atmosphere of the coop.

Scar has plenty of fleece to make it through this weather. I really should come up with a better name for her. She was in poor condition and not bred when we got her last spring. I'm more hopeful for this spring!

The chicken coop is much more peaceful now that the guineas are gone, and only chickens remain. We've been averaging five eggs per day. Usually four standard size and one bantam. Pretty good considering we have six laying hens and three bantam hens.

Kohen can't resist hugging his Anna, even as she searches for the best bite of hay.
Three moms: Good Mama, Pamela, and Kizzy. Last year Good Mama and Kizzy both twinned, and Pamela gave us a single. Can we hope for six babies from this trio?
Daisy and Lucy make sure Shep knows to stay away from their sheep.