Home again

All of my scheduled travel is over for a while now, and it is good to be home again.

I have had some wonderful visits with family in the past four months, but it seems I've done nothing but drive to Pennsylvania recently. Five trips between October and January. It is no wonder the blog has been neglected. Well, that and the cold weather makes it too easy to crash in front of the tv for a couple of hours every night instead of doing something productive. Ah Netflix, I love you and I hate you.

So, what's been happening on the farm over the last month and a half? As of January 12, all of our 2012 spring-born lambs have been marketed. We sold 42 and kept 6 of the best females for replacements. This is the first time since our first year (when we only had 6 lambs!) that all of them have been ready to go this early. Have I mentioned we like the barn? We did not lose any lambs after weaning this year, and I think that is in large part due to them not being on pasture and not being constantly plagued by worms. The fall-born lambs need to be weaned and separated from their mamas, hopefully we will get that done this weekend. At least at this time of year they aren't suffering from parasites on pasture, and we have been feeding them grain and hay, so they seem to be doing well. I am curious to get them on the scales and see what they look like. As the ewes have dropped off in milk production, there are some obvious differences in the lambs, so I'm curious how big of a difference it really is in weight. Part of the delay in weaning them is that we've been waiting for our skid loader to arrive so we can get the barn cleaned out before we put the lambs in it. That was a year-end purchase, which I am told will be so useful we won't know how we got along without it. I don't know about that, but if it helps get the driveway fixed that would be great. The chickens are completely on strike this winter. Most of them are pullets who haven't started laying, but the older hens have shut down. I have two eggs in the refrigerator and 43 chickens to feed every day. Something is not right with that equation! I did find a fresh warm egg in the nest boxes this morning, so maybe we'll be back in business soon. We have discovered that there are four or five roosters in the group of 30 pullets. We had noticed there were a couple that were larger and slightly different colored, and any questions were quickly answered a couple of weeks ago when the boys started learning to crow. This is not likely to work out for them. The Rhode Island males are a bit too aggressive for my tastes, and we already have one rooster. Some of them are probably going to end up as stew. I would like to be able to hatch out some chicks on our own and this could give us that opportunity, so maybe they will get a reprieve. Good behavior will go a long way with me. Randy roosters, take note: first one that attacks me is in trouble!

We enjoyed spending time with our families over Christmas, and both sides of the family expanded in January. Our new nephew, Jonah, was born January 5, and our new niece, Eden, was born January 31. We live too far away from all of the nieces and nephews, but at least these two are pretty close together. Who knows, they may end up being in the same class at school. What a small world, that my sister and Brian's sister would end up living 15 minutes apart, and both of them are nearly 5 hours from their hometown.

I leave you with a spot of cheer that helps the long winter days seem brighter. I received an amaryllis bulb and a potted orchid for Christmas, and both have bloomed recently. The amaryllis is finished now, but it was beautiful with four full flowers. Just as it had faded, the first orchid bloom opened. Definitely a bright spot in the corner of my office!

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!

November, the month of...

...travel. Too much travel. The first trip was to Pennsylvania for the annual Penn State Dairy Cattle Nutrition Workshop that I manage. Before it got started I enjoyed a few hours of hanging out with my sister, shopping and gabbing. The conference is a 3-day affair, and we had record attendance of 566 people. It went very smoothly and was generally a whirlwind of activity. Particularly for a hermit who spends most of her time at the computer. If I'm not there, I'm in a pasture or in a flowerbed... neither get many visitors!

I think it was the weekend after the conference that Brian and I planted garlic, spinach, and lettuce. A bit late for the greens, but we'll see what happens. They all sprouted, so that's a good start. We mulched the garlic heavily with straw, and I am excited to have some fresh garlic next summer. We tried a hard neck variety for the first time this year. I couldn't believe the size of the cloves, very impressive. We had three inches of snow on October 28, and then had our first frost on the 29th, so we were actually pretty close to on time with the garlic planting. No snow in November or so far in December. And it's fine by me if it stays that way.

At the end of two cycles in the breeding season, we were looking great with all of the ewes but one marked. A few of them have been re-marked since then, so it looks like lambing will stretch out a bit longer than a month. In other sheep news, we purchased a starter flock of Dorper ewe lambs. Dorpers are a hair-type sheep, which means they do not grow a thick wool coat that has to be sheared. Instead, the grow a coat of hair that sheds out as the weather gets warmer. They are meatier and I like the looks of them better than some of the other hair breeds that are too scrawny and goat-like in my opinion. The other major advantage of the Dorpers over our current North Country Cheviot crossbred sheep is that the Dorpers are less seasonal in their breeding. We are hoping to breed them in March or April for an early fall lambing. This will allow us to use the same lambing area with up to twice as many ewes. The other item off the check list in November was drawing blood samples to have our ewe lambs tested for scrapie susceptibility. We only keep those that are not susceptible, and we are making progress on that front. Out of 29 ewe lambs tested, 24 are not susceptible and will be kept around for breeding next year. So with the new Dorpers and our home grown replacements, our ewe flock is now up to 96. That's a 50% increase from last year and one-third of the way to Brian's goal of 300. Stay tuned to find out how we handle this; it could be interesting!

They are cute, and in great condition. We were told they never received any grain. Must have been some amazing pasture. But we believe they haven't had grain. We can feed the other lambs and these girls barely notice. If they were used to grain, we would know by now.

Okay, so all that activity makes it sound like I was home for a long time. It was just 5 days. And we didn't actually draw the blood samples until the 23rd. My second trip of the month was to Live Oak, Florida for the Southern Regional Dairy Challenge. The contest went very well; congratulations to all the students for all of their hard work! Before going there I wasn't sure if a "live" oak was a type of tree or just the opposite of a dead oak. I discovered it is indeed a type of tree. It's evergreen and has longer, thinner acorns than the oak trees I was familiar with before.

I was fascinated by the sphagnum moss growing on the trees. This live oak tree is at the camp where we stayed, but all the trees were draped in this stuff. You can see a holly decked with moss in the foreground of this picture. Cool and fascinating by day. Creepy by night. (FYI: as with all my posts, you can click on the picture for a larger view.)

The chickens have slowed their egg production pretty drastically. Four to five eggs a day is a good day right now. But we're only two weeks away from the shortest day of the year, and after that the days start getting longer again. I know it isn't by much. But progressively longer is better than progressively shorter. My moods get dark in time with the seasons, so I prefer the longer days! Here are some cheerful pictures from the day after I returned from Florida.

 I love these Barred Rock hens. Their bottom feathers look like petticoats, especially from behind.

 Ah, home sweet home.

 Yes, I'm a little nutty too.

The final trip of the month was back to Pennsylvania, this time to celebrate my Grandma Mowrey getting remarried at age 82. It was a beautiful day, and she and Bob looked very happy. All but one of my cousins was able to make it, and it was so nice to see everyone. Growing up we had so many family gatherings, now that I live farther away and have animals that complicate taking vacations, I really miss seeing everyone. We also celebrated Thanksgiving with my immediate family and attended our nephew Easton's baptism. I held Easton as much as possible during the five days we were there. He is a darling. Such a cute smile and a sweet personality. Even with our raucous laughter during the wedding reception, he just slept and slept.

 Windmills are popping up all along interstate 99. These were somewhere in the vicinity of Tyrone. Not a bad picture considering it was taken from the truck window while driving on the interstate. I love how the sunset was glinting off of the windmills.

 The gorgeous wedding cake, made by Robin, my sister in law.

My Dad and his brother and sisters with Grandma and Bob.

 My parents, aunts and uncles with Grandma and Bob.

 All the cousins and their children (except Suzy and Aurelia).

All the cousins and their spouses and children (except Jerry; Suzy, Michael and Aurelia).

Another of Robin's creations. This is a turkey cheese ball, which was gorgeous AND delicious!

So that was November. Surrounded by people most of the time and soaking up time with my niece and nephews, it was overstimulating for this hermit. Now I have to readjust to being alone. It's very quiet. I should get my Christmas shopping started and pull out the decorations. But I haven't found the motivation to do either one yet.

In these first few days of December, it's been more running, but closer to home. I enjoyed a beautiful holiday concert Sunday evening by the Celebration Singers. Six people from our church choir sing with the group, and it was a really nice selection of songs. On Saturday a friend of ours was ordained; it was a very nice service and a pleasure to be a part of that special day.