Oh boy! Little by little we have been picking up our very own hay equipment. The fast approaching hay season has had us scouring Uncle Henry's, Ebay and local ads for a baler, rake, mower, tedder and an elevator. Well, now we have the elevator. We store our hay in the second floor hay mow. There was no way to get it there without this piece of equipment. Our neighbor, Cheata, has been searching for us too. We got a call from her that this John Deere elevator with a two horse power motor was for sale in Corinth, ME. For our needs, this was over kill but what fun.
Our neighbor Fred has been helping/teaching us this year. We hope to have big news soon. Big, Big News.
Emma and Lucy enjoyed the afternoon in the field chasing mice.
Hay wagon almost loaded...
Yep, almost there......
Ted in our loaner tractor heading for the barn. Still no news about John Deere Girl.
Fred lining the hay elevator up with the barn door.
Finally, the hay wagon empty. What a lovely sight.
Soon the hay mow will be full and we will be content. Exhausted, but content. I wish I could blog smells. It smells so fresh and clean up here.
It may have been exhaustion or just plain feeling wonderful, but I got to wondering. What would it be like to ride the hay elevator? You know, like a bale of hay on it's way up. No, I didn't try it myself. But we did the next best thing. I hope you enjoy the ride and maybe have a laugh or two.
Summer means green grass, hay fields waving in the breeze and flowers.
Lots and lots of yellow ones........
Lavender ones......
white ones........
purple clover............
Even the trees flower
The hay fields abound with flowers.
With the exception of the trees, all of these wonderful flowers along with grasses go into making our hay.
Deep breath in...deep breath out. The damn tractor starts hemorrhaging. Well, maybe that is stretching it a bit. The hydraulic thingy starts leaking. I have an incontinent tractor. Maybe Atends would help? We had to have John Deere repair out again. Is this sounding familiar? Like, maybe, last summer? Guess what? The seal is made in India. They are having so many problems with these seals. Not just our tractor. WELL....that makes me feel sooooooo much better. I want to kick something. Really kick it.
This is our loaner........Just kidding.
Our neighbor Fred brought his tractor over. This is a 1970 International . A tractor that doesn't break down every summer.
We were able to get 264 bales up in our barn. I will post more pictures tomorrow. We had to wait a few days to cut more hay due to weather. Should we trade in our new John Deere tractor in on a used one? Hmmmm.......
This spring we had some amazing thunderstorms with a lot of wind, thunder and lightening and hay growing rain. No flooding so we count ourselves blessed. There were many trees down up in our woods. We found a few hardwood trees that will get sawed and split into firewood. This tree was caught onto another tree and needed a little coercion in order to fall. Please excuse the dorky woo hoo at the end.
Emma and Lucy were good girls and stayed in the truck till the tree was down.
After the tree came down Ted set to work cutting it into lengths that will fit into our wood stove. I much prefer him cuttin up the logs. I don't like using a chain saw.
The logs were then split and piled into the truck.
The splitting part was my job. I enjoy splitting wood. It is fun. So much easier with this splitter.
Back down the trail to home with a truck bed piled high.
Stacked into a nice pile to dry. I know, I need to work on my stacking skills.
By the way....is this poison ivy? If so we must not be allergic to it. No rashes. Our woods seem to grow this in abundance. It looks kind of like wild strawberries too. I would much prefer the wild strawberries.
We have more trees to cut and split. We never leave home without the bug spray. The mosquitoes and black flies are in full swing. I hate those biting critters.
Our wood pile keeps growing and will be greatly appreciated when the temps drop and then the snow falls. We are outside enjoying every warm day we are given.
Each year we order the Cornish Rock X for meat birds. They have excellent flavor and size. They grow at an amazing rate. Genetically they are made for consumption. If not butchered they will die before they are 6 months old. We use a wooden brooder to keep them warm when they first arrive. This is great for keeping out drafts which will kill birds. However, it doesn't take but a few short weeks and they outgrow their space.
The have fresh air and the wire mesh provides safety from predators.
They are moved to the floor with plenty of room to roam.
The boys are still getting their adult feathers in. At this time they are a bit naked in spots.
The boys enjoy having a little music to rock out to. We enjoy music and so do they. It seems to make them happy. Music makes me happy, so why not the animals? I know our turkeys love music too. Go ahead boys, rock on.
What we did on our summer vacation. That should really be the title of this post. I had 1 1/2 weeks off. A whole lot of time to spend on the farm getting every thing cleaned up, fixed up and ready for summer. This is our busiest time. We stopped by the John Deere dealer to inquire about servicing on our tractor. Much to our amazement they charge a fee of $375 to come out, not including supplies. Servicing amounts up to changing the oil and filter, checking and filling the hydraulic and coolant fluids, changing the fuel filter and greasing the fittings. I think I'm in the wrong profession. Again we looked at each other and decide right there in the service department that this is another one of the things we can learn to do ourselves. Home we came loaded with the items we needed. We brought out the owners manual and got to work changing the oil and filter. Filling the coolant and hydraulic fluids.
It didn't take long.
The fluids all come in big containers.
Our tractor is all hydrated, lubricated, but dirty. We have had so much rain lately that a thick coating of mud prevails. What a wonderful start to vacation. That may sound strange to some. After all it's summer. We will have time to play. But, it's SUMMER!
We got our first delivery from Parker Produce in Winterport, Maine. We have had cool and wet spring this year. Come to think of it we have a cool, wet spring every year. Oh, back to my point. I am amazed that we were able to have fresh veggies this early. After work Friday evening I went by the pick-up site in Bangor and look what I got. A bag full of spinach, another of salad greens, fresh radishes, a bunch of chives and scallions. We have already eaten the salad greens. I have plans for the spinach tonight. I'm thinking about eggs with chopped chives for breakfast. Yep, our fresh eggs with chives. Yum. I gotta go. Breakfast! Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm
It is spring so it must be time to order chicks and turkeys from Murray McMurray Hatchery. Since the first year we ordered we have learned so much. We have everything set up ahead of time. The brooders are ready with fresh shavings and food and water. We got the call from the post office in Bradford this year. In years past the birds came early Sunday morning to Bangor, ME. With the cost cut backs we now have to wait till Monday morning to get the chicks. I suppose it cost more to have us pick up the chicks on Sunday. I completely understand the cut backs but we seem to lose more chicks with the one day delay.
For a short time all of the chicks can stay in one brooder. After a couple of days we have to move the sweet little yellow chicks into a brooder by themselves. They are Cornish Rock Cross and grow at a rate of 10 times that of the sweet little brown hens. They are Buff Orpington. We put Grow Gel on top of the feed for the first feeding. They notice the green color and peck at it.
All cozy and warm with fresh water and feed. A chicks life. We have Partridge Plymouth Rock hens but they never seem to go broody. It seems that the Buffs make good setters.
The turkeys arrived a couple of days later. We ordered Bourbon Reds. We hope to keep a few hens and a couple Toms to breed.
This is the story of two best friends who lived in seperate towns, managed two seperate homes with all of the bills, taxes, and house payments of each. We thought that it was silly to continue paying such high bills. We decided to look for an old farm where we each could follow our dreams. We looked for a house big enough that would allow each of us to have our seperate space, enough farm land to be able to have sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys and any other animals that caught our fancy. We needed a barn big enough to house animals and hay. Both of us love the seasons in New England and wanted to remain in the northeast. Both of us were ICU nurses and are under no delusion that we can pay our bills with farming alone. We needed to be located near a large hospital for employment. We work full time as nurses and full time as farmers. That was a lot of needs/wants to guide our search. We combed through magazines, for sale guides, and the internet. We found a place northwest of Bangor Maine that fit these needs. It was a fixer upper in the mildest of terms. This is our story, how we arrived, refinished a 160 year old farm house and are making our dreams come true. We hit bumps in the road at every turn and try to keep a positive attitude. After three years we have come to a change that can't be overlooked. After much thought Alex has decided to pursue her dream elsewhere. Now the farm rests with Ted and I. We will work together to make our dream an actuality. Please follow along with us and welcome to Mainely Ewes Farm.
It didn't take long.
The fluids all come in big containers.
Our tractor is all hydrated, lubricated, but dirty. We have had so much rain lately that a thick coating of mud prevails. What a wonderful start to vacation. That may sound strange to some. After all it's summer. We will have time to play. But, it's SUMMER!
We got our first delivery from Parker Produce in Winterport, Maine. We have had cool and wet spring this year. Come to think of it we have a cool, wet spring every year. Oh, back to my point. I am amazed that we were able to have fresh veggies this early. After work Friday evening I went by the pick-up site in Bangor and look what I got. A bag full of spinach, another of salad greens, fresh radishes, a bunch of chives and scallions. We have already eaten the salad greens. I have plans for the spinach tonight. I'm thinking about eggs with chopped chives for breakfast. Yep, our fresh eggs with chives. Yum. I gotta go. Breakfast!
Yep, Lambert. He doesn't pollute the air with gas fumes, he eats his weight in leaves and grass and he is darn cute.
If you need a weed eater delivered to your house something can be arranged. For a small fee we can be encouraged to take a day trip. 
For a short time all of the chicks can stay in one brooder. After a couple of days we have to move the sweet little yellow chicks into a brooder by themselves. They are Cornish Rock Cross and grow at a rate of 10 times that of the sweet little brown hens. They are Buff Orpington. We put Grow Gel on top of the feed for the first feeding. They notice the green color and peck at it.
All cozy and warm with fresh water and feed. A chicks life. We have Partridge Plymouth Rock hens but they never seem to go broody. It seems that the Buffs make good setters. 
The turkeys arrived a couple of days later. We ordered Bourbon Reds. We hope to keep a few hens and a couple Toms to breed. 
Repeat steps 1-5 with the turkeys.
All cozy and fed.
Yep. It's spring and we have turkeys and chicks. 
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