one more lamb and more rain

We had one of our yearling ewes give birth on Sunday. A single ewe-lamb. Good looking - great coloring and pattern. Should have a pic shortly.

And we had more rain. Just as it was getting started on drying, it started raining again. And the forecast is for heavy rain next week. Enough already.

This past weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. THE event of the year for Mindy. Unfortunately, she had to miss the entire weekend cause she was recovering from a flu/virus. On the plus side, the fleece she entered took 4th place in the Double-Coated division. I took the girls to the festival on Sunday. They had a good time. We looked over some different sheep breeds, some fleeces and sheep equipment.

Nothing builds healthy, strong kids like 50lb bags of pig feed!

Lambing and Gardening

So very busy. It is lambing season here on the farm. We have 7 ewes, 6 of who were pregnant. So far, 2 have lambed. One had twins, one had a single. All black, all boys. All very healthy. We're expecting more everyday.

We completed the building of our very modified german 4 square garden. We have a neighbor with plenty of extra horse manure, along with our compost and good garden soil to fill in the raised beds.

Springs are starting to recede and the front pastures are beginning to dry out. That's a sure sign winter is almost over. It's still cold enough to load the woodstove before bed and in the morning.
Kate's art project, a 3-D barn with clay animals and farmers, got a second place ribbon at the Washington County Rural Heritage Museum Open House. If you have never been there, it's a great place to visit. The museum volunteers have an incredible wealth of knowledge and there's a lot to see. And they put on a terrific easter egg hunt.

I'll add some pictures when I get a hold of the camera.

Abby

Abby was our Belgian Shepherd. We had her euthanized a couple weeks ago. She was 13, going on 14, a long life for a big dog. We put it off as long as we could, but in the end, she just could not get around well, move without pain, walk without her back legs collapsing. She retired herself from active-duty, as one might call it, about 2-3 years ago when Lucy got old enough to carry on. She spent most of the time since then enjoying well-deserved days of alternately laying in her dog house or laying in the sun. And up to the end, she was still the undisputed alpha dog. She snapped, Lucy rolled over.

We found her at a Humane Society "Puppy Day" in Lexington, Kentucky. She was sitting in the back of a dog crate with her back to the crowd. No one was paying much attention to her, probably because at 3 months she was already pretty large at 40-50 pounds. Mindy asked to see her and when the gentleman pulled her out of the crate and turned around with her, it was like looking at the face of a bear cub. It turned out that the guy had been fostering her and was able to give us details on her quiet temperament and friendly nature. We were not looking for another dog, but we ended up taking her home with us. It was one of our best decisions. She was a tremendous dog. A lean 110-120 pounds in her prime. Instinctively knew property borders, obedient, patient with kids and protective. She took on a small pack of coyotes one night in Kentucky. Jet-black, she was almost impossible to see in the dark and on a moonless night, they never saw her coming until she hit them. We did not see the coyotes back after that. Sales people, missionaries, strangers - she would hold them in the driveway until we got there or they backed up and out. She was an imposing dog. Despite this conversation many times - "Does she bite?" "Sometimes." - she never actually bit anyone. She just looked like she wanted to. She did crush at least half a dozen door knobs with her jaws and chewed thru one or two interior doors when she decided she wanted out. At 7 and again at 9, she had knee surgery to repair torn cruciate ligaments in her knees but she bounced back fast after both. She was active and healthy for most of her life.

But in the end, it was time to face facts. The pain was bad, her hips and back legs were failing her. The drive to getup and run down to the barn was there, but the body could not do it. She could drag her legs down the slight slope, but had to stop every few feet going back to the house. We put it off as long as we could, hoping she'd either get better as the weather turned or she'd pass peacefully in her sleep, but it became apparent it was not kind to wait any longer. Through 3 states and 6 houses, she was a fixture who never seemed rattled by the changes. I know she was a dog, but it's not easy to lose a friend and companion that's been with you for that long. Oddly enough, I feel much better that she did not die at night in her sleep. The vet gave her a shot that put her to sleep, then stopped her heart. It makes me feel better to remember that the last thing she saw and felt and smelled before she peacefully drifted off was me holding her.

Conner and the tractor

A good weekend. Rocks moved, fences fixed, animal housing repaired, trees cut, logs bucked and lots of cleanup.

We decided Conner was big enough and responsible enough to give the smaller tractor a try. He spent the weekend moving things with the carry-all on the back of the John Deere 755. He did a great job with it.

New Toy for the Farm

Well, it's old and it isn't really a toy. It's a 1964 Massey-Fergusson MF-20 tractor with a loader and backhoe. The backhoe is really what we were looking for. We have a lot of digging to do this summer. Plus, we can use the backhoe to pull out stumps. Runs really well and the backhoe is powerful. But everything on the tractor is counter-intuitive. For example - the lever on the left side of the steering wheel determines the direction of travel. Pull back to go forward, push forward to go backwards. Same with the engine speed control. Up and away is slow, down and in is fast. Takes a little thinking before you go driving.

Needs a fresh coat of paint and some hydraulic lines upgraded. But other than that, its in fine shape for a 44 year old tractor.

Now to sell the John Deere 755.

Spring has arrived and so have the babies.

The miracle of birth loses much of its wonderment and awe when it's 2am and you are up to your elbow in a goats uterus.

Okay, that was a bit graphic, but it is the reality of farming. Early this morning, one of our LaManchas went into a rough labor. Luckily it was a beautiful night - mid-50s - and we had the bedroom window open for the first time this year. About 1:30am Mindy heard the goats hollering. I could recognize the voices as Selena and Dodge. Well, our goats don't make noise in the middle of the night unless something serious is amiss. Since we were expecting Rochelle to give birth in the next few days, Mindy went out to check. I dressed and followed after I heard the cry of a new little kid. We waited a while, but Rochelle was clearly having trouble getting the others out. Mindy gloved up and went in to check it out and sure enough, they were turned and badly positioned. A bit of feeling about, some false starts and she managed to rearrange and pull both of the remaining kids out safely. Triplets - 2 bucks and a doe. All solid black except for one buck which has a single spot of white one side. By 3am, they new family had been moved to fresh, clean quarters, the kids had been fed and mom given a clean bill of health. A quick shower and we were back to bed by 3:30. I checked them again at 6, made sure they were nursing and cleaned up the placenta. All three seem healthy and quite vigorous and Rochelle is her usual attentive mothering self. At least she picked good weather for it this year.


There should be 2 sheep giving birth in the next 3-4 weeks as well. Selena won't be due for several months. Spring has arrived.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanks to everyone who contacted us about turkeys this year. We hope everyone that got one enjoys their bird tomorrow. We are looking forward to being able to provide even more turkeys in 2008.


Happy Thanksgiving
jim and mindy
Hurry Burry Farm

Farm work and no rain

Not much rain this month - only about half an inch so far. While the pastures are still green and growing, they sure are not recovering as quickly as we're used to. As a result, we cannot rotate the animals back into pastures as soon as usual. Not to worry - we've been opening up more areas for them to graze. It's amazing how fast you can expand with hi-tensile electric fencing and some t-posts.

One problem caused by the lack of rain that we did not consider was the drought's affect on our downtime. Usually we have a weekend or two every month with an all-day rain so that we can't do any work outside for a day or two. It kinda forces us to take time off and relax. I think that has happened only once or twice this entire summer. With it so dry, we've been working hard every weekend, down til dusk. We've gotten a lot accomplished - new pastures, lots of firewood, added sheep, brought in more pigs, etc. But I could sure use a soaking wet Saturday for some guilt-free goofing off.

Mowing with Sheep

Well, the grass is getting high and with all the rain it's been too wet to mow. So, feeling lazy......




Yup. We decided that on their way to the back pasture, the sheep can stop for a few days to do some mowing. They are doing a very nice job. I may never cut the grass again.

Weather and Temperatures

Finally got some pictures of the sheep and pigs - I'll be putting them up on the website. This may be our busiest stretch of the year. Chickens, pigs, sheep, goats and turkeys all ranging about. Lots to do every day. Goats are milked twice a day, morning and evening. Everyone gets food and water 2-4 times a day depending on the weather. The hotter it is, the more they drink. The sunnier their location, the more they drink. If the pigs feel like taking a mudbath, they tip over their water to make mud. Luckily, we are blessed with cool mountain air and lots of shade. Temperatures for morning chores are usually around 58-64. This week has been in the upper 50's at 5am - very pleasant. Daytime temps easily stay in the low to mid 80s in the shaded woods. Yesterday I left downtown Baltimore where it was 94 degrees out, arrived in Myersville where it was down to 88 and got to the farm where it was 78 degrees at 6:30 pm. We'll see how it keeps up for the next 10 days which are supposed to be hot and humid. Of course the shade has helped keep much of the pasture green during this drought, which has been great for the animals.

If only we had some more rain.

The Weekend

Well, not as much accomplished this weekend as I had hoped. Saturday was spent at a birthday party. On Sunday we managed to trim the bushes, move the sheep box, clear out brush for moving the hay tent, add hotwires to the buck pasture.

But....... we did read the final Harry Potter book and Kate and I picked a pail of wineberries.

So, Farm Cleanup Week continues.

So very busy.

Wow have we gotten behind on posting to this blog. We have been busy, busy, busy since March. Many batches of chickens, 11 new sheep, goat kids being born, 2 new bucks, pigs, turkeys, etc, etc. Spring into summer is a rough time period on the farm. Add to that - opening new pasture, fencing in 2 new fields, prepping for sheep, running electricity and all the other general maintenance we do on a daily and weekly basis. Phew.

The big project for the past 2 weeks was preparing for the arrival of 9 additional Icelandic sheep. We decided to put them in a separate pasture up on the hill. One reason was to isolate them from the sheep that are already here to be certain no one is carrying any illnesses. The other reason is so we don't have to mow that area. We put in a 4000 sq ft pen of field fence, then 5 strand electric fencing around the larger pasture.

Now that sheep are in, it's time for Farm Cleanup Week.
Mow and trim roadfront.

Paint and install Hurry Burry Farm sign on roadfront.

Trim tree by gate.

Stack split wood.

Chip/shred brush and bramble in pasture.

Trim low branches on trees.

Move hay tent.

Clear out brush and scrub around the shop.

Paint the shop.

Move sheep box.

Restack boards off barnpad.
Trim bushes around the deck.
New tarp roof for kid's jungle gym
Trim fenceline

Winter's Last Hurrah?

Well, hopefully this past week was winter's last blast. Eight inches of snow. It really threw a wrench into the work we are doing to get the farm ready for Spring. Hard to finish putting up a brooder house in 4 inches of mud. Still, the warm weather is on its way and most of the snow has melted. Baby goats are running about and the baby chickens will be here this week.

Goat babies - Quads

What is it with goats that they have to choose the worst weather days to give birth. In a 2 week with 50+ degree temperatures, Selena picks the worst 2 days. The day she gave birth, we also received 6 inches of snow. Temperatures at night dropped to the single digits. But regardless of weather, Selena had a fairly easy time giving birth to 2 boys and 2 girls. Mommy is doing well and the babies are thriving.

Dead of Winter

Well, according to the weather guy on Channel 25, the offical "Dead of Winter" for our region runs from January 10 thru February 10. I never new there were set dates for that. Of course, I was not able to find any link of info to confirm that either. Still, I expect that time period is when the weather is the coldest in this part of Maryland.

They also said the other morning that February is usually the second coldest month behind January. Only three days so far this month with temps above freezing. And 2 of those were the first and second of the month. According to the NOAA, the mean temp in January was 36.1 and the mean temp in February is 19.9. Ouch.

Depending on who you listen to, it will either be this Saturday or next Tuesday when it finally gets above freezing again. It's hard to get any work done around the farm when there's 4 inches of ice all over the ground.

Baby Goats!

Thursday was quite the afternoon for baby goats. Apparently around 1 pm, Gigi started to give birth. I was working from home and Mindy and the kids were out. It was drizzling out and I noticed that Lucy, our English Shepherd, was not up on the deck. When I called her, she barked at me from the goat pasture where she was sitting in the rain in front of the goat shed and refused to budge - she was in guardian mode. Lucy NEVER goes into the goat pasture on her own, so I figured something was up. When I got there, I saw the 2 babies, both still wet from the birth and since Harriet was cleaning one of them off, I assumed she had given birth. Of course it became pretty obvious what was going on when I went inside. So, I ran back, grabbed some clean towels, fresh straw, warm water and feed and helped Gigi clean them and dry them off. Two very healthy girls. Great black and white markings. The babies took to nursing right away and Gigi seemed more agitated by Lucy's and my presence - she actually tried to butt me several times and caught me in the arm with one of her horns (ouch!). Back up to the house we went. When I came back down to look in on her, there was Harriet in the adjoining stall cleaning off two more beautiful baby does - black with white bands. Now Harriet, who gets easily agitated the rest of the year, turns into the sweetest thing when she gives birth. We cleaned up her kids and moved all three into the large stall with Gigi and her twins. Two mamas and 4 baby girls.



jim

ahhhhhhh Thanksgiving

Phew, what a week. Process turkeys. Deliver turkeys. Meet customers - well, that part is always a lot of fun. A big thank you to all the terrific people who bought a turkey this year. And for those customers that we were unable to supply, fear not, for next year we will be increasing our flock of turkeys to better meet the demand for local, free-range Thanksgiving turkeys. But not so much that we cannot maintain the high standards we have set. The added exposure we received thru the Washington Post and Local Harvest was tremendous. We also had the Frederick Gazette do a nice story on the farm and turkeys.

On Thanksgiving day, WTOP radio's Kate Ryan came out to the farm for a visit and a story. She was terrific and we had a lot of fun. The written story and one of the radio clips is available at their website . We will see if we can make the rest of the clips available off our website. Several of them are pretty darn funny.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Gobble, gobble, gobble

Well, all the turkeys have been dressed and sold. We had such a huge demand this year that we are thinking of doubleing or tripling our production for next year. Perhaps space out sizes better as well. We had a lot of requests for 12 -15lbers, as well as 20lbers, so we will be lookin got add a lot more turkeys in that weight range. Might need another goat or two to keep up with the milk requirements. As we head into the thanksgiving holidays, the day to day chores have lightened up - no more turkeys and meat chickens to feed and water. Still have goats to milk and feed twice a day, pigs and laying hens to feed and water. Unfortunately, it does not make for any less work overall. Now is the time for pasture redesign, now fencing, repairs, rewiring, etc. Plus we have 2 of the fainting goat does due to give birth very soon.

Aside from the turkeys, we spent most of the weekend building a new, easily accesible, very secure paddock. 15 hand dug post holes - very good exercise. The post are in, the boards have to go up and a 12' gate hung. We'll run some hot wire along the bottom and top and it should be an excellent area to keep pigs about to be moved to market, goats about to give birth, bucks in rut and whatever other use we can come up with.


Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Mud!

Baby goats are great. This was Geraldine at just a few days old. We should have newborns coming in less than a month.


Well, Tuesday was finally a dry day. Lots of rain Saturday night, all day Sunday, drizzle and showers Monday. Rain this afternoon and 1-3 inches thru Thursday. Add to that windy with gusts up to 60mph. There is a general worry about trees uprooting due to the wind blowing on roots weakened by the rain. We'll have to batten down the hatches tonite.

The turkeys and chickens dislike the rain. The goats really hate getting wet. I don't enjoy doing chores in a downpour becuase all the animals get a bit disagreeable - goats don't want to come out to be milked. The only really happy ones seem to be the pigs. They just curl up in their house and wait for a til it passes. Then they are as happy as.... well, as a pig in mud.

Rochelle hides in the kids' playhouse after getting free following the morning milking.

A strange weather weekend. Sat was in the mid-70's, sunny and very warm. Shorts and a t-shirt weather. Clearing trees and splitting firewood in the morning, digging post holes for the new holding paddock in the afternoon. Sunday could not havbe been more different. Rainy, overcast, upper-40's. We went from the AC on Sat to a fire in the woodstove Sun. On the plus side it allowed one of those rare occasions that we get to relax all day, watch some movies and read some books. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein - big hit with the kids. And hearty homemade soup for dinner. mmmmmmmmmm

Correction on Fainting goat due dates. We checked the farm log and Gigi and Harriet are due Dec 4th and 6th respectively.

Gotta get back to writing

The kids getting ready for trick or treating at Grandma's house. Butterfly, Ninja and Cowgirl.

It's been really busy since August and the next several weeks are about the busiest we have all year. The week before Thanksgiving is turkey procoessing followed by pickup and deliveries. Follow that with the pigs going to the butcher on Dec 7. On the plus side, we get to slow down after that. Relatively speaking, of course. We have two thirds of our does bred, 1 or 2 more to get bred this month. Fainting goat babies will start coming around the end of February.

Just so we don't get soft over the winter, LOTS of projects scheduled. Everything from clearing more pasture to redesigning the pasture layout to a new paddock/holding area.

jim

August 1 - Hot and Humid

It is just awful out there. Not so much the heat as the humidity. After an hour of work, your shirit is so soaked that it feels like you wore it swimming. Not to mention the humidity just sicks the energy right out of you. Yet life and work goes on.

The 2 week-old meat chicks are out of the brooder house and onto pasture in a portable bottomless pen. Another few days to fully develop their feathers and they get turned loose to free-range.

The turkeys were put out to free-range this morning. Going from the brooder pool to the open pasture seems to have confused most of them. But they catch on fast. A day or two to adjust to the new surroundings and they will begin spreading out. They should grow out to be around 20-25 pounds. We sold out very quickly last year - everyone started calling and reserving turkeys in October. We had to turn quite a few people who called in mid-November looking for a Thanksgiving bird. In addition to free-ranging and grass, these turkeys will get a good amount of cracked corn and fresh goats milk to give them that incredible tender and juicy taste. Only 17 more weeks before Thanksgiving.

This is a good week to spend most of the daylight hours down at the creek.

Hot, busy weekend.

It was a very busy weekend and the hot humid weather did not help. But at least it was not raining. The pastures are just now starting to dry up from the flooding we had back at the end of of June. To deal with the mud and standing water, we lined the goats' congregation areas with gravel. One benefit from the flood and rain was the several tons of gravel from the driveways and roadside that washed onto our property. We had planned on having a dumptruck load of gravel delivered for that purpose, so with a bit of work - moving a ton and a half of gravel several hundred yards, we saved a couple hundred dollars.

We lined the area around the water trough with gravel and large flat rocks dug out of the pasture. That will keep their feet out of the muck and help wear down their hooves.

We also finished laying the last 3 feet of flooring in the goat barn and rolled a nice big 700lb bale of hay into the pasture.

Toss in berry-picking, 10 enormous zuchinnis, weeding and many loaves of zuchinni bread baked. A full, very tiring weekend.

Baby Chicks, Baby Turkeys

We had a double arrival. On Thursday morning, a shipment of 60 day old broiler chicks showed up at the Hagerstown post office. Friday morning, we picked up a shipment of 25 two day old turkeys. All are scratching about comfortably in the newly constructed summer brooding house. The broilers will be turned out on pasture in about 2 weeks and will be fully grown at 6-8 weeks. The turkeys are a good bit more fragile and will probably remain brooding for 3-4 weeks, then to a covered pen for another 1-3 weeks, then off to free-range until Thanksgiving.

Pictures of the babies are up on the website.

Fainting Goat kids!!

We have had 2 sets of births from our Fainting Goat herd. Gigi gave birth to twin boys Saturday afternoon. Harriet had a boy and a girl early this morning. All four kids and their dams are doing well. We hope to have some pictures up on the website later this day.

jim

Rochelle's Quads

Rochelle gave birth 3/14 to quadruplets. All males.

Only 3 bucks lived. She rolled on one and killed it. The last one, Stewie, was stuck and not coming out. Mindy actually had to go in and reposition him and them pull him out.

This is Stewie-

Here are the 3 boys-
There are growing fast and furious. They have developed a tendency to slip thru the pasture gate and wander about the farm up by the house. The kids love it and our English Shepher, Lucy, seems to have developed a real mother complex in watching over them.
These three are about as friendly and personable as animals can get. And a little too smart for their own good.

I hope to have an updated picture this coming week.

jim

Wet Pastures

We have been plagued the past 2 winters with a wet pasture. Not damp - wet. Wet as in 3-4 inches of mud. This is the main reason the Red pasture is not used in the winter. Once the ground gets soggy, the goats just tear it up and turn it to mud. It's a shame, because the rest of the year, it is a beautiful place. Last winter, we found a springhead had developed in the middle of the field. We never got a chance to dig it out or do anything with it because of the snow and frozen ground. By the time we could address it, the groundwater had receeded and the spring went away. It did, of course, pop up again this winter and is putting out almost 5 gallon a minute. We believe it is the primary culprit in turning the majority of the Red pasture into a muddy, mucky mess. But this has been a very mild winter and the weekend was rather warm. So, we took the opportunity to address the spring. The Blue pasture also has a very active spring which pumps 10-15 gallons a minute or more depending on precipitation. But that spring feeds into a little stream which runs down to the creek and thus the pasture stays dry. We decided to see if the same fix would work on the smaller spring. We dug a 1 foot deep, 60' long trench to connect the little spring to the stream. Tough work in heavy mud. So far, the standing water has drained away. The ground is still muddy, but it seems a bit better. With the anticipated rain and snow, it's going to be difficult to really judge the success of this project until next winter. But we should be able to see more improvement as the winter wears on, particularly on the standing water problem. If it is helping, we'll dig it out a little deeper and line it with rocks and gravel.

Step two in pasture draining - we have another rather large stream bed that fills when there is a lot of precipitation in the winter/spring. It just kind of comes to an end in the back corner of the Red pasture and floods the area we want to put a new pasture in this summer. We need to extend that steam bed to connect to the other and stop all the water from pooling in that location. Or maybe route it down to the pond. Plus, I think there is another springhead in that area. Lots more work. But once it is done, we will have a very nice new grazing area.

Due dates

We have 5 goats well into their pregnancies. Gestation for a goat is approximately 150 days, or 5 months. There is an excellent chance they will have twins, and a possibility of triplets. Of course, last year Gigi had twins and Harriet had a single. So, we shall wait and see.

Rochelle (LaMancha)- March 21

Gigi (Fainter) - Apr. 6

Cookie (Fainter)- Apr. 7 (maybe, if she took from the first time she was in with the bucks)

Harriet (Fainter)- June 3 (that's from the last time we saw them breed, could be sooner if she took earlier though)

Selena (LaMancha) - May 2

We have buck on the farm for the Fainting Goats (Frank). When the time comes, we just put them in the same pasture as Franl and let nature take its course.

Our LaManchas are taken off the farm to be bred when them come into heat. That is a major chore in itself, especially trying to time their cycles to get them bred at just the right time. Rochelle took just one breeding, Selena took three, which is why their due dates are so far apart.

With a little luck, come Spring we will have at least 10 new kids running about the farm.


Below is a picture of Harriet giving birth to Geraldine last Spring. That's Cookie standing up in the front. Geraldine is of course named for Geraldine Granger, the lead character on one of our favorite britcoms - The Vicar of Dibley. Harriet and Gigi are named in honor of our Uncle Harry and Aunt Genevieve.

Busy Weekend

We took advatage of the warm and mostly dry weekend to get some major projects done around the farm. First was a new hayrack for the small buck pasture. The buck pasture actually has our fainting goat buck Frank, plus Harriet and Cookie - both of whom should be well into pregnancies by now.

The big project, which took both days, was fencing in the road front. We have quite a bit of hedgerow along the road, but in the winter, the hedge is less secure and the hens wander much more. Over the last month, the hens have been wandering up the hill and ranging up along the road. So, to keep them secure and to be certain that Lucy the devil puppy does not go out to the road, we decided to run 4' high field fencing all along the front of the farm and tie into the field fencing that runs along the sides. We finished just as the sun was setting on Sunday. Now the road is seperated by solid fencing and gates and we feel much better. Only drawback - having to get in and out of the car to open and close the gate. We may have to look at automating that.