COVID

Covid finally found our household. Zoe brought it home and was down for 7 days. Nasal and head congestion, loss of taste and smell, and exhausted. Then it hit me. Chest congestion, cough, body aches, chills, icky stomach, exhaustion. When I could find the energy to care, I found it fascinating that we could have such different symptoms in the same house at the same time. 

Unable to work for any length of time outside, I have been relegated to rest, read and putter inside. 

My parents gifted me with Mother Earth News magazine and it’s archives dating back to 1970 for my birthday. I have enjoyed reading through the archives, gathering great tips and realizing that although the world is a very different place than it was in 1970, the ideas of farming haven’t changed that much. Or maybe it’s that we are now looking back 50 years and realizing how right the methods were then and implementing them again?

I have almost all my seedlings started under the grow lights. I still have to plant the peppers but ran out of soil. And since no one wants my germ infected person in town, they will have to wait another week to get planted. I was very excited to peek in today and already see tiny brussel sprouts, cabbage and broccoli coming up!! 

I want to put out a huge thank you to the Troup’s❤️ I received an amazing package in the mail from Charissa and Dean containing some of their farms maple syrup which I am saving to enjoy with my father. He is the only person I know who loves maple syrup more than me! This package also contained some seeds Charissa saved from her garden. The seeds, the variety, the handmade paper labels, everything, was so amazing. I believe she just added another “farm goal” to my list! I really am so appreciative-thank you!

Here’s hoping for a healthier week ahead.

Baby Season

Baby season has successfully begun. 

The incubator is up and running with our first hatch completed. We had one duck egg which was fertilized but did not hatch and 13 chicken eggs. Of those, 12 were fertilized and 9 hatched. So what does this mean?? It means my roosters and drakes are doing their jobs, but I have to do mine better. I have the incubator temperature and timing down pat and am getting better success rates, but still struggle with keeping the humidity levels at an ideal percentage. 

We have 5 ducks eggs in right now (all fertilized yay) and 19 chicken eggs but I won’t know their fertility until Wednesday when I do the first candling. 

It’s wonderful to be hatching these tiny adorable babies but I do feel badly for the big girls. Between the fox that I still see regularly in the back yard and the avian flu which is wiping out flocks across North America, they remain locked up in the barn for their safety. That is not the life I want for my animals, so I am moving ahead with the fenced in area and Tillie is spending more and more time in the barn learning her guardian dog skills which will at least help with the predator problems. Unfortunately time is the only thing that will help with the avian flu problem.

The puppies are growing although not as fast as I had feared. They are gaining about 2 pounds a week putting them at 44 pounds right now. We are doing our best to expend their puppy energy by running in the back field a couple times a day. Scouts idea of running is chasing me to get a treat while Tillie runs circles around us🤦‍♀️ We are also ramping up the training and doing a lot of recall training as I learned the hard way with Dixie…for their own safety, the dogs need to be perfect at coming to me when I call them.

The cats have been the concern this week. Phoenix, our primary barn cat (who comes in the house a lot) had a tapeworm. Poor guy must have been so uncomfortable. But one trip to the vets, deworming pills for all our cats, one gross worm in the litter box and we are happy again.

Another slide show for you. Love all my babies💖