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!

Fall lambs soon and more ram power for fall breeding

Last weekend we attended the ram sale at the Virginia Tech experiment station at Steeles Tavern. It was a lot of fun analyzing the sale catalog and then walking through the pens to pick which rams we wanted to bid on. We agreed that there was only one Dorset we were interested in, and we brought him home. There were several good Suffolks. The one I liked the most I was pretty sure would be out of our price range. He topped the sale at $1275. So I am learning a bit about how to pick good sheep; it is nice to be validated! We purchased an excellent Suffolk ram and I am excited to see what kind of lambs he can produce. The two new rams are buddies and have settled in very well. We plan to put them together with a group of ewes for fall breeding, run Dalton and Bruce with a second group, and then run Thorne through to clean up any that have not settled in the first two cycles. I ordered marking crayons today, and we are about 6 weeks from the start of breeding season.

Two new rams, love the power and muscling of the Suffolk ram. His ribeye area measurement was over 3.5 square inches (adjusted to 125 pounds of live weight). The Dorset isn't quite as eye-catching, but he had good carcass ultrasound measurements (REA right at 3 square inches) and a good growth rate. Both rams scored very well on their breeding soundness exams and have the RR genotype for scrapie resistance. Should be a big step forward for our flock.

By the time we start breeding this fall, our fall-lambing group should all be finished. We sorted the ewes last week and have observed udder development in about 15 of the ewes plus 2 that may be developing, all Dorpers. We moved these 17 home so they can lamb here under closer supervision. So, our CIDR experiment produced about what we expected (at least 45%) in terms of the number of pregnancies. Of course more would have been better, but trying fall lambing with a smaller group the first time around is probably not a bad idea! Because the ewes aren't as fertile, they commonly have fewer lambs in the fall than they would in the spring, which means more singles. Singles combined with good pasture all summer and first-time mamas could make for a high number of ewes that have complications in their delivery because the lambs are too large. We'll know more soon... All of the ewes that are not bred will go into fall breeding groups and hopefully they will lamb in the spring.

Click on this picture for a better view, but this is what we wanted to see - udders!

Fall lambing Dorpers

As you can see from the photos, the grass is nice and green. We have had plenty of rain and it has rejuvenated the grass, saved the corn, perked up the beans at just the right time, and got the fall tillage radishes off to a fantastic start. Plus we made several hundred bales of third cutting alfalfa-grass hay and will likely get a fourth cutting.

A very respectable ear of corn. The rain came just in time for us.

Tillage radishes planted into tall wheat stubble. The radishes grow huge taproots that create pores in the soil; it is great for compacted soils and a key part of our conversion of the farm to a no-till system.

Soybeans a little more than waist high.

The broccoli is also off to a good start with some cooler weather and plenty of attention to keep the fertilizer flowing and the flea beetles and cabbage loopers at bay. We've even picked a few peppers now that the heat has finally allowed fruit development. Last night I picked a few lima beans and tomatoes, finally some summer produce, just as September is rolling in and my thoughts turn to fall!

This is about half of the broccoli in the upper garden. We have three more rows further down from this spot, but it was getting too dark to get a good picture of them. Our fencing is working so far to keep out the groundhogs and deer.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Ha! I am half of the Joneses, and I can't keep up with us. I don't know how nearly a month has passed since my last post, but sure enough the calendar says it is May. The thermometer said August earlier this week. We had a high of at least 93 degrees Wednesday. I don't know how much higher it went; I stopped looking when I saw 93 sometime that afternoon. The two batches of chicks seem to be weathering the weather okay, although I threw open the doors and all the ventilation possible this week. At nearly 5 weeks of age, the older group is pretty adaptable at this point, all they need is constant feed and water. But the younger chicks are approaching 3 weeks of age, and I worry more about all the fluctuations with them. It really seems to be important to get them off to a good start in the first couple of days. The older chicks were stressed when they arrived and went through a heat wave back in early April, and we've lost several from that batch. The younger chicks had a much gentler first week, and are doing very, very well.

Lambing is all but finished. Just one more ewe to go, and everyone else has been done for a week or so. We had a rash of unexplained lamb deaths. Otherwise healthy lambs that looked fine and then were dead. Very frustrating, but the storm seems to be over now. All the ewes and lambs are out on pasture and the lambs have discovered the creep feeder and are growing like weeds. They always look good this time of year, but we're hoping the creep feeder is going to help them with the transition at weaning time and help the smaller lambs keep up a little better. Our spring breeding experiment is now almost half over. The CIDRs went in with no trouble, and were pulled every two days in an attempt to allow the rams to keep up with the girls all cycling at one time. There were a few hitches. Like a breeding soundness exam on our new Dorset ram that revealed he had a very sub-par scrotal circumference and only 10% live sperm. That was his second black mark because the earlier DNA test showed he was QQ. So he's now BBQ. We decided we couldn't waste any more time on him and wanted to sell him. The guy we usually sell lambs to didn't have any immediate openings, but lucky for us, a few minutes later he got a call from some Mexican guys looking for a barbecue lamb. Perfect timing! The breeding soundness exam also included Dalton, our Suffolk ram we bought a couple of years back. He had great sperm, but his scrotal circumference was also pretty small. So we were a little hesitant to put him in with a group of 33 synchronized ewes who all needed to be bred in a small window. That might be a stretch for him. So we arranged to rent the services of a friend's ram. He is a high-dollar Tamarack Prolific ram, which could give us some nice replacement offspring if he successfully covers any of our new Dorset ewes that are out of a Tamarack ram. The first two days the rams were in with the ewes their marking harnesses kept falling off. Turns out some genius (yours truly) had put them on backwards. Once we fixed that, ewes got marked rapidly. So, we don't know if the ewes whose CIDRs were pulled on the first two dates were bred or not, but many of the third and fourth set ewes were marked. We'll be leaving the rams in for another 20 days or so to give them the opportunity to have two full estrus cycles.

It seems like we should have accomplished more in a month's time, and we probably did do some other stuff. But, those are the highlights. Which brings me to this week's events. Some weeks are just frustrating. If sweating your butt off in May wasn't enough fun, try untangling lambs from fence wire that has inexplicably traveled to the middle of a field and wrapped itself around a fuzzy leg. Or, unsticking a lamb who has somehow hip-locked himself in the creep feeder. Or...

 The epic fail that was my deviled eggs for a dinner at church on Wednesday. I put them in the back seat of the truck and when we stopped at the store to pick up a few groceries, I didn't even think about them before I opened the door to put the groceries in the truck. Apparently overhead compartments on airplanes are not the only place where a handy warning sign that says "objects may have shifted in flight" would be appropriate. When I opened the door the egg tray sailed out and landed upside down in the parking lot. Only about 6 eggs actually fell out, but the rest were not in any shape to be set on the table at a carry in meal. I made these into egg salad. I don't know what became of the ones we left in the parking lot, hopefully some small rodent had a delicious surprise meal.

And today my latest grass shipment arrived (that's ornamental grass, just to be clear) and the plants look fantastic. Shout out to Santa Rosa Gardens, they have an incredible selection of ornamental grass, which is perfect for folks like me who are addicted to the stuff. Anyway, these healthy plants are great, but you may notice "one of these things is not like the others." One pot of Calamagrostis Eldorado (feather reed grass) is clearly not Eldorado (it's the one on the left).

Also today, in an attempt to be both frugal and handy, I decided I was going to find the problem with a float valve that is not working. I had previously figured out that it was different from the other float valves, but I wasn't sure if there was a missing piece or a broken piece causing the problem. So I found the manufacturer's web site and located a parts diagram. After deciphering that and watching a helpful assembly instruction video, I was certain I knew what the problem was. There is a little plastic piece called an orifice that should fit under the hose gasket; we no longer have this essential little piece of plastic so the float valve never shuts off, which defeats the whole purpose of the float valve. The manufacturer doesn't actually sell anything, that's all done through distributors. So I found one online. They did not have the particular item I need listed, but the site gave a phone number to call in such a situation. So I called and talked to a nice fellow who said they don't stock that part, but maybe they could order it. After I hung up I realized this was a wholesale company, and there is very little chance they will actually call me back so I can order a single piece of plastic that very likely costs less than $1 (based on the cost of the parts they did actually keep in stock). So I thought I'd try Tractor Supply, which is where I bought the float valve to begin with. The first girl who answered the phone was quite up front that she didn't know jack squat, but she'd get me to someone who did. The second girl who answered the phone informed me that they did not stock replacement parts and that she would recommend just throwing it away and buying a new one, because usually it would be more expensive to special order the part and pay for the shipping than to buy a brand new one. So, I'm in a situation where the manufacturer's product description clearly states "all parts are replaceable," and the manufacturer makes and lists a replacement part (I even have the item number). But, no one sells the replacement part? Really? I know $12.99 (the price of a new one) is not a lot of money, but if I could fix the thing for less than a dollar, why would I not do that? What a wasteful society. Before I buy a new one, I'm going to go to a hardware store and see if I can find something that will work. To be frugal you also must be a little stubborn! 

These are not big deals, but sometimes I sweat the small stuff.

This week is a study in patience. I'm doing the best I can. Hey, I got great egg salad and probably some free grass out of it, so it's not all bad!

(Update: Santa Rosa got back to me less than an hour after I emailed to let them know what happened, complimented me on my photo, and offered to replace the grass or give me a credit. Not one to waste money -even if it's not mine- on shipping a single plant all the way from Florida, I opted for the credit. If karma is real, I should have just gotten on the plus side here. So maybe that wholesale company is going to call me back and send me the orifice!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Late as usual, but it's the thought that counts, right?

The past few weeks have been very busy, so let's see if I can remember enough for a decent update. Thursday, December 22 we finally got our tree decorated and cleared out the dining room so we could have Brian's parents over for dinner. December 23 I selected pictures for our Christmas cards, uploaded them to Wal-Mart, and one hour later picked up the cards. Love it! The tree fell over and had to be redecorated, but turned out pretty nicely none the less. Note to self, add fishing line to that list of indispensable household items (you know, duct tape, WD40, and a leather shoelace - my first car was held together with two of these three items). The stuff from the dining room just moved to a table in the basement, but that's just a temporary home. We had some time to work on the basement kitchen over the holiday break and were able to finish all of the framing. Just this weekend, Brian and Pete placed the counter/cabinet, installed lights, and ran wires for all but one of the electrical outlets. Next up, building the pantry shelves, hanging paneling, and calling in a plumber to hook the sink drain up to the septic system. I haven't taken new pictures of the basement, but here's the tree and the living room decorated for Christmas.

We enjoyed several opportunities to visit with family during Christmas celebrations and a wedding reception for Brian's cousin Chris.

Brian's Christmas present was some new paint.

Hopefully it will be a gift that keeps on giving for years to come.

We kind of got off on the wrong foot though. The tractor was delivered a day earlier than we expected...so far, so good. On the afternoon in question, Brian came into the house and asked if I would drive him to the end of the road to get his truck. It took a minute for me to process how he could be at the house with the truck at the end of the road, but once I realized he had driven the tractor up I was happy to run him down to get the truck. He failed to mention to me that there had been a slight problem with the delivery, so it was a bit of a shock for me to see one of the brick columns flanking our driveway lying on its side in the middle of the flower bed I had created around it. All in one piece, but clearly not where it was supposed to be. At the time I didn't even really notice that the wrought iron fence between the two columns was severely twisted as well. Apparently the guy unloading the tractor did not leave enough room and knocked the column over, taking the fence with it, as he came down off the trailer. I was a little annoyed. Those of you who know me in real life can probably figure out that is understated sarcasm.

So Brian assured me that he would call the dealer and get it worked out. By the time we got back to the house he had talked to the dealer and made arrangements to get a diverter valve that would allow him to hook up more stuff to the hydraulic system (anything mechanical - not my thing, so hopefully that's close to right), and he said, "so we're calling it even and it's all taken care of." Wrong! You are taken care of; I am pretty sure the column is still going to be lying in the flower bed next Christmas. But I underestimated the allure of new paint and putting it to immediate use. Brian and his Dad set the column back in place that very evening and all was well. Except the next morning Brian got a message from the dealer to give him a call. We figured he had come to his senses and realized that a diverter valve was not really a fair trade. Wrong again. He said they were on their way to our house to drop off the valve and reset the column. He proceeded to do just that, putting the column back in place, setting it in quickcrete and fluffing up my mulch - end result the column looks good as new and is probably sturdier than it was before. And he took home the fence to fix in his personal forge. Haven't heard back on that yet, but overall what impressive service! He earned repeat business from us for sure.

One of the best things about being off from work is that there was time for something story-worthy to happen almost every day. The day after Christmas some close friends of ours had their first baby. Welcome Garrett! We spent the day with Brian's family, and among other fun things, we had a family sing along and played Scrabble. I got the highest one-word score I've ever received, by using all of my tiles at once to spell RUMINATE. Not only was that worth 68 points, but what a great word for a dairy scientist!

The following day was the wedding reception. On my way to the church in the morning to help prepare for the party, I noticed that the chickens were all crowded up against a fence. This is really odd behavior, especially since we had only let them out a few minutes before and their days typically begin with widespread foraging. Even more suspicious was the White Rock hen I saw a little further down the driveway. It was tightly hugging a depression in the side of a hill with a dazed look and a pile of feathers all around. I called Brian to let him know what I had seen, and he grabbed a rifle (just in case) and headed out the door. He had barely stepped out of the basement when he saw a big red fox with a chicken in its mouth just a few yards away in what we call the high-tensile field. He shot and the fox dropped. When he got up close to it he realized it was quite old and quite impressive in size. So for some reason he promptly loaded it up and took it to the taxidermist. Any men reading this probably totally understand. Me, I don't really. Where are we going to put a full-body mount of a 21-pound red fox?

 Just so there's no confusion, this photo is taken before mounting!

Ah well, I guess that's present number two for dear hubby. And I think that is probably why he then went out and bought me a totally extravagant present.

When we got home from the reception that evening he made a big deal of me walking into the house with my eyes closed and then revealed my gift... an upright bass. Wow! Wow! No, I don't play the bass, nor do I even read bass clef music (apologies to Ms. Bell, who tried to teach me to play the organ). But I love hearing the bass line and had toyed with the idea of getting a bass a few times in the past. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but in the time that I have, I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

The following day we finally got the ewe lambs moved to New Hope and settled into their new pasture and then brought the rams home. Breeding season is officially over. All of the ewes were marked, so we have a potential for 46 new mamas this spring. That could be as many as 92 lambs (if they are all twins), but we're more likely to have somewhere around 65 (1.4 lambs per ewe on average).

Then we headed to Pennsylvania for Christmas with my family. We had a nice trip even though it was brief, and I enjoyed a girls day out shopping with my mom and my sister while Brian and my sister's husband fished at one of their favorite spots, Spring Creek.

On the drive back home, New Year's Day, the sky was amazing.

It's hard to do it justice in a photo snapped while driving on the interstate, but the light was streaming through small openings in the clouds at the same time that most of the sky was dark due to heavy cloud cover. This was taken at 3 pm, when we should have been 2 to 2.5 hours from actual dusk. It reminded me of the verse from the Gospel of John about light shining in the darkness. I especially like the wording of the translation in the Message: John 1:5, The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out. That's a good reminder any time and a great way to head into a new year.