Moving Around on the Farm

It won't be long till snow covers the ground and limits the animals travel about the farm. It has been getting cooler over the last week. We have made some animal moves. The guineas went in with the hens to make room for the turkeys in the barn. It took a couple of days but the guineas finally made it outside. They were very excited about taking their first dust bath. They made it out ok, but had to have a little help getting back in at night.

The hens took it all in stride.

The goats took time out of their busy schedule to check out what was going on.

We cleaned the shavings and put up new green mesh between the turkeys and the hens. They can see each other but share completely different sections. So far no eggs. When do turkeys lay?

We opened their door and.......

out came a pug. No, Ivy was just there helping out. She thinks all of the animals are her babies. She never chases anything. She checks them all out to make sure they are okay. She still can't understand why we won't let her into the pasture to see the sheep. We truly don't know what Fuzzy the llama would do.

We finally know what our rooster Hawk is. He was a freebie with our last order of Cornish Rock X from Murray Mc Murray Hatchery. He is a Silver Laced Wyandott. At first we actually thought he was a she and named her Ladyhawk. Then Ladyhawk began to get friendly with the other hens and crow. Now, this is Hawk. Lord of the chicken yard. He has dethroned Samson our Partridge Plymouth Rock rooster.

We have had to work the last 2 nights so we have accomplished nothing besides milking and feeding animals. There is that sleep factor that gets in the way. We will have 6 nights off and plan to finish up alot of the last chores on our to do list. The weather is cooler, winter is near and time seems to slow a bit. Work on pastures and fences will halt till spring arrives. We will pay more attention to things like weather reports. Occasionally we get a weather report that will make us laugh out loud. Tell me where but Maine will you get the following from your local weatherman: "Well, it has been warmer than it's been". I love Maine. Much love and prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Kelly

Back at last

Well what do you know, the computer at work decided to let me on. You never can tell what its going to do. I know it has been quite a while but let me try to get all that we have done in some sort of order. In July we picked 19 quarts of strawberries and made our first preserves. Well we made some preserves and some syrup. Pectin , it seems is magic and we are novices at its control. We have about half the jars (about 25) that are just too soupy to be called preserves. But its good on ice ceram. And the freezer has a goodly amount in their natural state. Our chickens have matured nicely. We now get about 30 eggs a day and are selling them. We are talking to a caterer and that would be sweet if they want 12 dozen a week. We got 25 cornish cross roosters to raise as meat birds and I will not be sorry to see them go. All they do is eat and sleep. And they are not nice when you go in to feed, they peck at your legs constantly and spur you. So I say " to the freezer with you old buggers" and I will keep my affection for my sweet brown hens. Ted built us another set of nest condos as 9 was not enough. The girls were pushing and shoveing and laying eggs everywhere. Now they are much happier. The weather has been an issue for us all summer. It rained here in upper Maine for a month straight, every day. No one could get hay cut. Well some did but not us. The fellow who was supposed to cut our hay does not like to square bale but has both a square and round baler. He gets half the hay for the job. This year he thought he had a lease on a much bigger field a so kept putting ours off till the rain started. When it finally ended we had hay and weeds and his lease fell thru so he came and cut ours. Then his square baler wouldn't work so he round baled everything, except sheep want dry hay and we have no tractor to move round bales. So we have an empty barn and round bales sitting out in the rain. He on the other hand can use round balse and has the tractor. Go figure. So Kelly and I have decided to go to the USDA and jump thru their hoops in the hopes of getting a loan for a tractor mow bar, rake , and baler. With 20 acres of hay we can do our own. So additionally, due to weather, high grass, and general lack of funds we still don't have our fence posts in or fence wire purchased and up. We did , however make a trip down to Skowhegan and check out the Tractor Supply Company. What a candy store! They tell us one is coming to Bangor next year. I can't wait. We have a pellet stove paid for and are waiting and waiting for Lowes to get it in. We've been 5th on the list for a month. Pellets are also reserved thru our feed store. The sheep are coming in January so we have much to get ready. The second side of our old barn is now all cleared out and just a few repairs needed for the sheep to come. I have to build a bunch of doors before winter gets here. Now kelly has decided to get some dairy goats. I have to find out about mixing the goats with the icelandics and what the differences in care are. Her Soap making is going great with many different kinds of wonderful all natural goat milk soap. Selling well. If we can ever figure out how to get the web site up and running you can all see it. Now she is going to make bath bombs and maybe lotion. I have started making cheese. So far Mozzerella and ricotta and soft chees spreads. A neighbor has goats and lots of lovely milk and is going to teach me to make cherve though I still can't pronounce it. Lets see what else... Teddy, Kellys youngest is off to college this last weekend. Phones and says he loves it so that is good. The house sure is quiet. The bees are doing well according to Kelly. I still look from an allergic distance. The back of the house has the siding completed and all the kitchen cabinets are in. We built a huge island around the chimney and it has lots of custom stuff like tall sheet pan cabinets and cutting board slots and soda can bins and is all tiled. We took down the wall that was so cold in the kitchen last winter and found..surprise, no insulation at all. nothing, just the ouside boards from when that end of the house was a barn 160 yrs ago. So it is now insulated and sheetrocked but has yet to be painted. All the bedrooms upstairs are finished. Floors are done, walls painted and decorated. Thats 5 rooms. All that is left up there is the hall and the yet empty bathroom. Someday!We did end up with some tomatoes squash cabbages brussels, lots of Italian peppers and onions. The grape vines are ok as are the raspberries but the blackberry didn't make it. The blueberry bushes look fair. Our asparagus patch lots like it will be ok too. Some of the trees are already changing. The days grow perceptably shorter up here and I made a big double batch of homemade bake beans. Must be fall coming. I am headed to NH in Oct for my eldest sons wedding and have been clothes shopping, which I hate. but I finally have something to wear. Kell'y birthday was last week and mine is in 2 weeks and so time marches on, right over us. All her kids were up last weekend which was loads of fun. Good to see them and the grandbabies. well thats it for now. Glad to be back. Alex

Whatever Weather

Tuesday evening. It has been hot and sticky all day. Yesterday I drove to NH and back (Yee hah!) and it was really hot and muggy there too. But it evidently stayed overcast with sporadic hard rain through out the day up here in Maine. Kelly and Ted attempted to get our big pile of brush to burn but it just wouldn't stay lit to finish the job. And it was still too wet to burn today. The ride home last evening had steamy roads and fog on the streams. There was the glint of standing water between corn rows and potato hills as I got further north. Still haven't seen much hay cut. I guess no one is willing to take the chance of rain when its been raining at least every other day for weeks now. And they tell us more is on the way. We may get a break the evening of the 4th and the 5th. We'll see. We would like to get started on refinishing the main room floors but we haven't sorted out how to keep the cats, dog and us off them to dry, and how to have access to the bathroom, and how to get to the upstairs to sleep, without crapping up the urethane or doing each floor in pieces. We really don't want overlap marks or paw prints or to have to sleep in the cars. And we won't even discuss how to exist without a bathroom for the number of days it will take to stain and put down 3 coats of urethane. Some of our cats are NOT barn cats and will be most put out at even being confined to the kitchen.i.e. Abby the Diva prefers not to leave Kelly's bed except to eat and hiss at all the other cats. They are after all her underlings. Max and Sara are Maine Coon Cats but both like long naps curled up inside. Beau and Sugar are both ones who prefer to be outside during summer and will not be a problem. Oreo is a big tuxedo cat who like Timba the orange kitten use us simply for cat exchange at the kitchen door. in-out-in-out. all day long. And Lastly Little Mo, our petite grey baby. She Is the mightiest hunter of them all but after having gotten lost in the woods for 4 weeks when we moved here, is not comfortable too far from the house. And then there is Ivy, our silly Pug dog, 8 yrs old deaf and sweet as they come. she sleeps with me or on the sofa 20 out of 24 hrs. What will we do with the critters? What will we do with us? We did pick up the paint for the guest room and I will try to get all the new overhead lighting fixtures installed over the next weekend or so. And we have to finish work on the next section of the barn because the new chicks arrive on the 14th . Their stall/coop still has several year old petrified cow poop on the floor and holes in the outside wall. No rest for the wicked.