Life on the farm.

[Cynders]

Recently added another 20 chickens to the coop, I got year old cage free birds this time, having seen how a commercial operation for cage free eggs runs I would never call them free range. I consider it's almost a rescue operation to rehouse them in my Chicken Hilton.

The sheep now number around 30 with 12 or so ready for the freezer or selling, some of the ewes will be culled this year as they are around 8 years old and will be replaced with last years ewe lambs and we will get a new ram.

Yesterday we added 2 calves, yet to be named they have cried all night for their mothers, they will settle soon though. We have a cow each deal with a friend who has property down south, we run them for a year here and when they get too heavy for our property we move them to his and get 2 more calves. That way we both get a freezer full of meat a year.

Regrassing around the new paving will have to wait until after Summer, in the meantime we have erected a roof over some of the paving so the BBQ is under shelter.

And then there are the windows and all that paint stripping and painting...this plan has been completely thwarted by the weather which has thrown constant rain at us which only stops long enough for the wind to blow!!

Back to work next Monday.

[hrhouse1]

Sounds like a "little slice of heaven" down there. If you only didn't have to work at a day job too.

How about a pix of the new BBQ area ?

What's new with Tazboy?

[cookielady]

Thanks for sharing how life is going on the farm. Farming has always been way down on my list of things I'd ever want to do. You farm it & I'll cook it for you though!

[BarbCA]

Would have loved being on a farm when I was young. Not anymore. Too much work for me now.

[Cynders]

Yeah, it's a pain having to do a day job as well, such is life in the land of mortgages.

Tazboy? A typical teenager who loves gaming more than anything, nothing of note happening. Only 4 more weeks before school starts again.

[Mayebarnes]

Cyn,


When WW2 ended. our family moved to my Grandfathers farm... Granddad was needing help, we needed a place to live.. and their big old farmhouse was perfect for two families,
four big rooms down ,four big bedroom up. big central hall.
Doors on every entry... and then we kids found out how much "fun" a farm was....the garden, the chickens , the animals . the fields....Dad had to have electricity installed, a bathroom installed. each lady had her own kitchen , living room.
I though it was wonderful... I could have all the cats and kittens I wanted. we had a dog.at last... and someone else milk the cows. ..
my Dad had a full time job. so all field work was done in evening and weekends... I did not realize until years later how tired he must have been..

love hearing about your animals,, good deal with the two for on the beef....would love to see little lambs..

if I get my plane ticket for about end of Feb...should be nice and green ,,,right?

[Pat B]

I'm stowing away in Aunt Maye's suitcase... Consider yourself warned, Cyn!

[Cynders]

Tui moment!!

A range of beer here has an iconic advertising style of improbable things...the punch line is "Yeah Right".

Janet and Pat will arrive in February, yeah right!!

And yes, it will be green then.

[Mayebarnes]

well it is a probability I COULD WIN THE LOTTERY!

and pick up Pat to come with me...

IT COULD HAPPEN

Americanism....in a pigs eye..

[determined]

Would love to be on a small farm, a few chickens, maybe a beef cow and pig to raise for meat.

Aunt Maye, my Daddy worked the farm and worked construction, winter was his only "off" time and sometimes not even then. I can remember him falling asleep at the table. Alot of the time he would do what he could on the farm, then go to his construction job, come in and go back out to the fields until it was so dark he couldn't see.

[BarbCA]

In 1956 we lived in a little house in the country with a large pasture in back. We got a cow and my ex got a job in the mountains so he had to leave around 3:AM. Guess who got the job of milking Betsy. Joy was 3 1/2 and she would come outside in her robe and slippers so she could have a cup of very fresh warm milk.
That was the good part, the bad was it was colder than all get out that winter.

[Nalani]

My dad always had chickens and when we moved to Hana he added cattle, 2 horses, more chickens, and a turkey or two. Now my daughter and SIL have the chickens and cattle. So far nothing else. She sells most of the eggs. Also has a fruit stand down by the road on an honor system. She told me she receives around $25 a day from that. I told her to take a picture of the stand. So far she hasn't.

[Cynders]

There's a little bit of farming in most of us it seems, sadly most of the kids today will never learn these skills.

I sell the eggs, we sell the sheep and get meat for ourselves, we get meat when the cows are big enough. We make enough that the chicken food pays for itself and replacement chickens, the sheep pay for themselves in drench and shearing costs, there is enough left over to pay the property rates each year.

Then there is the vegetable garden, capsicum, lettuce, tomato, beets, spinach and herbs.

I'm amazed I have time to work!!

[determined]

We had sheep one year. My Great Grandmother was 87 years old and said there were 2 things she always wanted to do in her life that she hadn't got to do 1 hold a baby lamb and 2 Bite a mule on the butt . Anyhow Daddy went and bought a couple of ewes that were bred, once the babies were born my Aunt and Uncle brought Grandma to the house and I went and caught one of the lambs and brought it in to her. Daddy told her that he could/would make number 1 come true but he wouldn't buy a mule for her to bite as it was to dangerous. She just laughed and said that was okay her teeth weren't good enough to bite the mule anyhow.

We didn't care for the lamb meat, the wool didn't pay for the feed and with my Dad everything on the farm had to serve a purpose and pay for it's self so he sold the ewes.

[Cynders]

We didn't care for the lamb meat

Hardly surprising given what I have read about raising lambs in America.