The rest of the story

I'm caught up to mid-September at this point. So here is the rest of what we've been up to this fall.

On September 28 we got new layer chicks, 15 Rhode Island Reds and 15 Barred Rocks. We are very much looking forward to the beginning of their egg laying and a return to having plenty of fresh eggs! Right now we are getting two or three every other day, and interestingly, the two best layers are the renegades that have taken up residence at the sheep barn. I guess their diet of grain and pickings from the bedding is agreeing with them. Anyway, the old hens are in need of some rejuvenation, and the new pullets are coming along nicely.

Rhode Island Red chick at about 2 weeks of age.

Barred Rock chick at 2 weeks. These are acrobatic and active chicks. They kept hopping out over the draft guard. In fact, I think it was the day after I took these pictures that I decided the draft guard needed to be removed.

Pullets at about 7 weeks of age.

Just after the chicks arrived, I left town for a quick trip to Madison, WI for World Dairy Expo. My flight out of Roanoke was canceled, so I ended up driving to Dulles and flying from there. I missed a Dairy Challenge event that I had really wanted to attend, but I did get to Madison in time for all of the Dairy Shrine events, which was the main reason for my trip. As always, it was a fun week. Catching up with people you haven't seen in a while, taking in the thousands of exhibits, and enjoying the cow shows. How could that be anything but fun? Best thing I saw this year? That would have to be a new-to-Expo artist, Valerie Miller of (Steel Cow).

Always an elaborate ringside display; this year it was a giant cornucopia and milk bottle. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to fill that cornucopia with pumpkins.

I watched a few hours of the Brown Swiss show and got to see the champions. Oh the pageantry! If you have never seen it, the parade begins with this group of yodelers. They fill the arena with their yodeling and bell ringing. Then the winners of each class enter the ring; the cows wear bells and the leadsmen wear colored jackets. It really is something to see.

After Expo, I took the first of several trips to Pennsylvania. This one was to Cochranville to vist Char and Matt, see their new house, help paint the nursery to prepare for the Little Dickens who will be joining us soon. Mom came down for the weekend too, so we had a good time and enjoyed the visit immensely.

October 24 we began fall breeding. We separated the ewes in two groups this year and ran Dalton and Bruce with 40, and the new rams (who I have dubbed Duff and Heath) with 36. Thorne got a bit of a break and went in with a group of 6 ewe lambs that we saved back as replacements. These 6 young ewes are really nice and had already hit 95 to 100 pounds by October, and Thorne tends to throw small lambs, so we thought they would be a good match. I am happy to report that he marked all 6 ewes. Now we wait to see how many actually settled and how many lambs they will have. The other groups also did very well. So far we are highly impressed with our new rams. Duff is a machine. The Duff/Heath group bred 33 out of their 36 ewes in the first 17 days, compared to our mature rams who bred 37 out of 40 in that time. All the ewes except one sickly looking one have now been marked. We have pulled the four rams out, combined the ewes back into one group and will let Thorne run with them for another week to catch any that are still open. Soon the boys will be back at Brian's parents, eating grass and refueling. They lose a bit of weight during breeding season as they tend to have things besides eating on their one-track minds.

Heath and two Dorset ewes.

Thorne and his small ewe group.

We ran the trailer around the county a couple of times that week, as we also purchased another group of Dorper ewe lambs. We will attempt to breed them and the ones that lambed this fall for another crop of fall lambs in 2013. They are interesting looking because some are out of a black-headed Dorper. They seem to have settled in and we hope they will make a nice addition to the flock. Now if we could just find a good Dorper ram, then maybe we will be done buying sheep for a little while.

November was a whirlwind. Brian had a three-day trip the first week. I had the annual Nutrition Workshop that I manage for Penn State (trip number 2 to PA) the second week, and then it was Thanksgiving, and another trip to PA to visit family and put on a baby shower for Char. All went well. Neither Brian nor I had major crises happen while home alone, and the visit at home was really nice. This was the first I had been back up there since Christmas last year. We live too darn far away! While I was in PA for Thanksgiving, Brian and his parents worked a bit on our basement kitchen. So it is progressing. The plumber should be coming next week to hook up the water and hook the sink in to the septic system.

The adorable tree stump cake and acorn candies Robin made.

Robin and Char

Taxing their brains with games about baby woodland animals.
Grandma Mowrey (Smith), Aunt Donna, Mom, Great Aunt Doris, Dad's cousin Rita, Great Aunt Val Jean, Great Aunt Evelyn and Char.

Aunt Debbie, Carol, Krissy, Colsey, Shelby and Jack

Aunt Ruth, Grandma Lindy, Aunt Ida, Great Aunt Betts, Aunt Janet, Shannon, and Mary Lou

Eliza, Robin, Aunt Diane (hidden), Malissa, Marcy holding Easton, Riley, and Alana

He slept through the whole shower!

Eliza telling Aunt Char about the gifts she made for the baby. So sweet! Love that girl!!

Jack gets in on the fun.

Kent is not to be left out!

It was so nice to have some of the Great Aunts there! We used to see them more often, but again, I live too darn far away.

I love the expression on Easton's face in this one. He is a cutie! Somehow I didn't get a picture of Eric this trip. But I sure enjoyed spending time with them all. Coloring, feeding calves, whatever, it was a really great time!

The week after Thanksgiving (last week) was full as well. We sold our pigs and 30 of our market lambs. The pigs left on Tuesday. We loaded them up and ran the trailer across the scale at the co-op. Then we dropped the pigs off and ran back over the scale. The difference in our weights said the pigs averaged 365 pounds of live weight. Those are big pigs! They were fed for 148 days and gained about 2.2 pounds per day on 7.4 pounds per day of grain. (That's an average, by the end they were each eating close to 12 pounds per day). The dressed weights were 259, 269, 251, and 264.5, an average of 261. That works out to approximately 72% carcass yield, which is not too bad. A pig and a half requires 15 cubic feet of freezer space. Now the fun begins: making bacon out of the side meat and a variety of delicious sausages from the shoulders. We tested a couple of recipes last weekend, as we had to clear out some freezer space to make room for the new meat. I think I have convinced Brian to also try some liverwurst this year. In addition to clearing out pig parts, I cooked down 45 pounds of chicken parts to make stock. I have canned 21 quarts, we've eaten 2 fresh, and I still have one batch (probably 10 or 11 quarts) left in the fridge that I hope to can later today. Last Saturday we sold 30 market lambs. The barn is much quieter now with only 12 market lambs left. The bred ewe lambs are back in the barn, so there are still three groups to feed, but we've switched them to once a day and they burn through hay at a much slower rate. Just one more group of sheep to consolidate and then we will be ready to go away for a few days and not feel like we are asking someone to take on such a huge job by feeding for us. Two more trips to PA before the year is through, and then one more in January, maybe two, after all there will be two new babies to see.

The pigs at the beginning of November. They were getting some size on them...

Pigs on market day (26 days after the previous pictures).

There's always one *ham* in every group.

Mmm...bacon.

It doesn't get much better than this! Maple breakfast sausage.

Maple sausage being cut into links.

Well, that's about it. Now we are caught up to the present. Speaking of presents, I'm off to Tractor Supply to buy me a birthday present - brand spankin' new boots. Muck boots. Happy birthday to me!