Hay Days 2012

Summer means... long warm days, shade trees, afternoon breezes and hay. Hay..Hay...Hay.   Those long warm days really boosted our hay production this year.   The grasses were thick, green and loaded with wild flowers. 

We had just the right amount of  rainy days  interspersed with 3-4 day stretches of dry days.  The weather man was even spot on this year.  And the most amazing of all amazings.....the tractor didn't go into the shop. Nope not even one trip.  A whole summer without a loaner.  Wow...I guess maybe, hopefully we have had everything repaired that needed to be done.  Even our John Deere salesman thinks that is what has happened. She ran like a Deere this summer. 

I just love the smell of new mown hay.  I love to see those cute little bales fall off the back of the baler.  

I get plum excited when the hay trailers pull up to the barn. All those bales getting  ready to ride the conveyor into the second floor of the barn.  Our old motor on the conveyor bit the bullet. Ted picked up another used one and it works like a charm.

Now that the word is out that we have our own equipment Ted has been getting calls from neighbors with fields they want cut.  They pay us with the hay.  I love this form of payment. 

We had to hire a couple of guys to help out. That was something to be thankful for. Help!

One of the wives came along and fell in love with Isabella.  Truthfully, that was a very easy thing to do. That goat will steal anyones heart. 

The barn is full and smells like summer.  

 I'm looking forward to comparing next summers hay yield after we use the manure spreader on our fields.  I do expect to see an improvement.  The fields haven't been fertilized in too many years to count. 

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Free Range Does Not Mean Yard Birds

 

Chickens, chickens, chickens.  Not where they are suppose to be.  Hens in the yard, roosters in the barn. 

 

Out enjoying a stroll.  Looking for bugs, seeds, weeds.

This might be the reason.  Ya think?  The past winter took its toll on the wire fences.  The chicken wire just isn't strong enough to hold up to the sheep on the pasture side and the goats on their side. They definitely go along with the grass is always greener and we have to lean over and eat the grass on the other side motto. 

The barn is still in need of repair.  That will have to wait until the tractor is paid off.  First things first. 

We pulled up all the old wire and fences.  Ted brought the John Deere out to push the post down again.  We have heaves with the winter freezes and the posts get all wonky.

 

Much better now.  The birds are where they belong.  We put up 2x4inch welded wire fence this time.  I guess it has been about 4 years now that I think about it, since we first put up the chicken wire. It was time for an update.

 

They are once again free range.  Pasture ranging birds.

The inside is all clean with fresh shavings.  We put diatomaceous earth down first to kill mites and any bugs.  Pine shavings make the whole barn smell wonderful.  Ted removed the wall between the new birds and our older flock.  These turkeys were hatched from the eggs this past spring. 

There is a lot of pushing and shoving until the pecking order is achieved.  Old birds soon get comfortably with the new kids on the block.

Old limbs, boards and feed bags end up here.  Busy day and we got so much done.

Productive day and supper on the table.  Satisfaction with our accomplishments.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm. No more chickens in the yard.

Pilfering From My Mothers Stash

Lately I have noticed that I have an increasing interest in antiques. I guess because now I'm an antique myself.  I love to sit under the maple tree and spend time on EBay.  Ted is so good about stopping at antique stores and letting me have my fill of wandering, touching, ooing and aahing.  We have gotten a few items for the upstairs from local estate sales.  There is a sale barn over in Corinth that is fun to visit.  My mother lives in Florida but has a home in New Hampshire that she rents out.  She still has a few items in the basement and  I had her permission to look through the boxes and take a few things. Hmmm......well this is what I brought home.

I have always thought this chamber pot was delicate and beautiful.  It will go nicely in an upstairs bedroom.  Amazing that the lid is still intact. We have found a few in the past but the lids always seem to be missing.

These two water pitchers fit nicely in my hutch.  I need to find a few tables.  I need bedside tables and a couple of dressers.  I like the mix and match of an old house.  It's always fun to look at an item and wonder about its life.  Where it was made, its first home and owner.  The stories that furniture can tell. 

Maybe it is best that furniture can't talk.

Much Love and Prayers From Mainely Ewes Farm

Both Sad and Happy Day

We had been feeling a bit pressured to keep up with all of the sheep.  Feed and hay bills can be a bit intimidating when you begin to get too many sheep.  Then there is shearing and de worming and hoof trimming.  They are a pleasure but the list goes on and on.  We had a visit from a neighbor this last summer.  Gina loves to spin and was looking to start her own flock.  We were offering Esther and Moriah for sale.  Gina was excited and wanted to take them home after she was able to get her fences up.  We took Esther and her lambs over in the truck with the topper.  Gina brought her Jeep to get Moriah a couple of days later. 

 

Icelandics are easily transportable in a Jeep.  Moriah and her lamb seemed right at home.

I was sorry to see them go.  Cutting back is never easy.

Everyone is happy. Esther is the escape artist at her new farm too.  The boys are now wethers.  Plenty of weeds, small trees and leaves to eat.  We can visit since they are right down the road.  Life goes on.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm

A New to us Manure Spreader

I don't know where the summer went.  It was spring and before I knew it fall arrived.  Well, not technically, but it definitely feels like it.  The farm has gone through many changes.  As I look back they have all been positive.  We have been busy and I will attempt to catch up. 

To start, being a farm we produce one thing in mass quantity. POOP.  Yep, the chickens do it, the turkeys do it and so do the sheep, llama and goats.  When I tell you it is a mountain by the barn I really mean it.  I have been looking on Craig's List and Uncle Henry's for months in search of a reasonably priced and close to home manure spreader. If it was close to home it was rusted out and useless.  If it was 400 miles away the price was pretty good.  Nothing in the Bangor area.

I need to interject here. I have to say one thing about Mainers.  If they bought it for $1,000 twenty years ago and have used it the entire time and go to sell it, they want what they paid for it new. 

Seriously.

Well, Uncle Henry's finally paid off.  I had just about given up until spring.  Amazingly I called an add for a John Deere ground driven manure spreader.  No, it couldn't be. The price was just right and it was in Dover-Foxcroft.  Only 25 miles from home. Emma and Lucy were loaded up and ready to roll.  Off to see the exalted manure spreader.

 

Yes, it was in good shape and the price was right.  Homeward bound.

It may be old, the machine, not Ted.   

It is a Model-L Series. I don't have any idea what that means. I will go online and try to find out the year. 

The boards are sound.  There is some rust but everything works.

There is even some John Deere Green left after many years of use.

We can't wait to try it out.  I think I got a little too excited about a manure spreader.  Our pastures have been neglected for many years.  Hopefully we will increase our hay yield this next summer.  We will know what goes on our fields.  I had thought about using the sprayed fertilizer from nearby dairy farm on our pastures.  Then one day as I drove past one of the dairy farms I saw a septic tank truck dumping human waste into the holding pond where the cow waste was stored.  That changed our minds immediately. 

It's nice being back. I love reading the blogs and finding out what everyone has been up to this summer.  Now I have to blog and get myself caught up.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm

 

 

 

 

Supermoon 2012

I guess in Maine we really wont have a Supermoon, just a supermoon.






It was fun setting up the camera with a telephoto lens.  I truly know that the camera is much smarter than the photographer.  At least you can hear the peepers but mostly the guineas. The night is nice and there were about 5 who absolutely  refused to come into the coop.  Hope you had a bigger moon than we did. It was still very beautiful. I think the man on the moon was wearing sun glasses!
Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Bourbon Red Turkeys

 

My favoritest turkey of all the breeds is the Bourbon Red.   They have such rich, warm colors.  Both sexes have such sweet dispositions and will follow you around.  Last spring we ordered 15 poults from Murray McMurray Hatchery.  I think that they must have gotten chilled in transit and we lost all but 5.  Of course, there were 4 toms and 1 hen.  That is just the way things work out.  We put 2 of the toms in the freezer and kept the remaining 2 toms and 1 hen.  She had started laying the most beautiful spotted eggs.  Visions of little poults danced in my head.  Well, there once lived a horrid fox at the top of the hill and he wanted a nice plump turkey for dinner.  We made that his last dinner. So, now we have two lonely toms who are searching Craigslist for a girlfriend.   

We cranked up the incubator from last season. It was a gift from my guinea hen crazed mother.  We had guineas growing up and she wanted us to have guineas too.  Boy do we have guineas. Great incubator with an amazing hatch rate. Online we went to Craigslist for Bourbon Red turkey eggs.

The only eggs we found were in Candia, NH.  That is about 3.5 hours away.  Hmmm....that sounds like a day trip to pick up turkey eggs and to visit my daughter Sue.  Well worth the trip.  Off I went Monday and we had a wonderful visit.  I met a very nice lady named Cathy,  who raises all sorts of fowl.  I paid $40 for a dozen and she threw in 6 more for free. I hope there are all hens.  Hahahahahah.  Never.  If we are lucky there will be a 50/50 split. 

They are all placed in the egg holder with love and care. 

The thermostat and humidity all set .

There they are all snug and warm in their bed.  The turner is on and we will check daily to make sure the reservoir is full of water. 

In 25 days I will turn the temperature down to 99.5 and increase the humidity.  At the 28 day point we should hear little pips and POULTS.

Monday we are putting some eggs in for a neighbor.  Chicken eggs take 21 days so they all should be hatching at the same time. We finally have a couple of broody Buff's and we are going to let them set.  Babies everywhere. SPRING!

We have been having rain for days now.  The hayfield is green and growing. Looking forward to a first crop of hay.

Being thankful for rain here.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm