Fawn calved!!!

Heifer. 

I missed it. I slept in. Then made pancakes first. After causing a grease fire I was frustrated. So I went out to see Fawn 2 hrs later than normal. 

    I knew she would calve today! Last night her pins had dropped. And I still didn't get out early like I had been. I think I did too much yesterday. I was tired. 

   More later. Here are pictures for now. 

I had a silly idea.

We discovered a great vlog. Abundantpermaculture.com

It is encouraging and we upped our data allowance to afford a tiny bit of data usage on it. 

   But they did a 100 day challenge to see what they could produce. But I got curious what we could do in a year. In gardening and foraging in the wild. 

    At first I thought milking and microgreens would be cheating. But I feel confident that they aren't. They are work. Produced here. 

    So I'm starting October 1st. Weighing every thing we produce. Hopefully for s full year. But I am a great starter. Not so great at following through... But I'm excited and I'm just going to jump in and see how long I can swim. 

   We are putting in the fall garden this week. Need to clean up the trash garden. Bring in the pepper plants. And till the garden for fall crops. It is a tiny garden. So I think it is doable. 

    

But for now this sweet girl and I are going to sleep. Love to you all!

Microgreens

Our order has shipped!! I kept meaning to oreder. But it had to fall by the wayside for the summer. But I'm so excited!!!

Here is a update to the aerial photo

Our haven

This is a aerial of our nearly 10 acres. The picture is 3 years old.  We don't own the top right acre. Those lines are obvious. 

And we don't own just over 3 acres in a long strip starting in the top left. 

   I need to get a app that lets me draw on photos. I hope to do that soon. But I need to download every thing on my phone for more room first. But thought it might be interesting for people. 

Barn starts.

We were trying to decide what to do as far as barn size and shape. Patrick went down to the neighbors this morning to talk to him. Saw this frame. And ended up trading a half a bucket of sweet potatoes for it. Good deal! 

Patrick has to unbend one pipe and replace all four legs. So it is basically the roof frame. But it made our decision  for us.  Not my ideal. It won't be big enough to have a stall for her. Just a place for food and a stantion. Or now as I think about it I might be able to have a stall with a stantion she can't get into when it she is in it. I think I like that idea the best. Patrick thinks I need to have the feed barrels indoors. But they've never been in before. Not sure how we will do it. But part always does well. 

Fawn

Found bloody show on Fawn at 9:30. Had company. So we last had checked at 6/30. And at that time she was clean. It could happen in the night. Or insecure all days. But just keeping records. 

Chicks!!!

The other day I ran to town to get some supplies. I had to run into the farm store. They had Cornish Cross Chicks. I nearly got some. But decided to wait and talk to Patrick. Why I didn't call him I don't know. Likely because I don't think about having a phone on me. 

    When we told him they were there he said I shoulda got some. 

   This evening, a few days later, I called to see if they had any left. They were closing a hr later. And had marked them down 50% off.  I told Patrick and we ran out the door. 

    They were sold out of layers. But I wanted broilers mostly anyways. They had 22 left. We bought them all. 

  I have never had this few chickens. Ever. They should be easy. And currently they are inside. Remember the barn?? Yep. 

  

Outdoor garden work

Fawn has a lump on her udder. I would guess that is normal as she is bagging up. But I'm planning to ask on the cow boards in a bit. 

Sweet potato greens. Just learn they are edible and yummy. Can't wait to taste at supper. 

We were hauling boards. I had used them to hold down plastic garden sheets.  (Never ever again. ) 

Wisdom is a sweet girl. Anyone's buddy. 

Cheeser. 

Ergo (baby carrier) means visit Fawn to her now. If I strap her on I am signing the contract. Haha! Really. Yesterday we went in the rain. 

Hard workers!

Tubby found snails. 

See the babies in there? He loves snails!

She picked a top of the lambs quarter and whacked me with it as I worked. So helpful this one. 

Done!! Ok we still have sweet potatoes to  dig. But that is easy comparatively.  

    I had to pay with ice cream Sunday's and the Richard Greene 'Robin Hood' series. But I'd say it was very. Very worth it. 

Judah found a grasshopper. He thought it looked like it was eating him. And requested a photo. Cutie cutie!

Watermelon rind gummies.

Yesterday I made watermelon rind gummies. They are alright. Not much flavor. I'd add in lots more lemon zest if I do it again. And maybe some ginger. 

I dehydrated them as they were really wet. Even after straining them. If I do it again I will not put in any water. Basically I wouldn't even use the recipe as s guide. Ha!

   But they are pretty. And it was a fun project. 

Dehydrating.

We grew lots of watermelon this year. Our first successful year. In the past we only got 1-3 from a huge amount of vines. I had considered  it fully not worth the effort. It is a 'extra' not a need and the Mennonites here sell them so cheap. 

   But I found old seeds and had decided to plant every seed I had this year. And ended up with over 30 melons! We are them fresh. We made slushys. We dehydrated it. This morning I put the rest in the dehydrator. 

Then to fill space I threw in grapefruit. Cucumbers and an apple. I am really liking the dehydrator. Before I had only dried things like apple slices.bananas.  Raw food crackers. Cookies. And brownies. Beef or venison jerky. Which are all amazing. But I am in serious dehydrating mode now. Thanks to my friend Noelle! She dehydrates so much yummy stuff. And added me to a dehydrating group. I love it! 

Here is yesterday's watermelon. The children love it!

Old Blog. Reopened.

Last night I open ended my old blog back up. If you're interested it is

Roehrman.blogspot.com

So much change! What sweet babies they were!

Fawn early labor

This morning at 7:30 Fawn looked thinner on the sides. But her belly was lower. 

  Just now at 1:00 she has mucus. So things are moving forward. But will be several hours or even days yet. 

 

Due Date is 5 days out. 

I'll update as I can. 

Edit: 

  Looking at pictures of Jocelyn when she was expecting for the first time. I am pretty certain we have several days to go.   But we are checking her lots all day long. Hopefully she doesn't go in the night. We really hope to see it. We only missed 1 of Jocelyns here on the Farm. 

Progress.

Because I am obsessing about my girl. I am attempting to see a difference in her pins. To show possibly that labor has started. 

And another. One of these pics is yesterday. One today. No difference to me. 

Caught stealing a cucumber. Which she spit out and threw on the floor. 

But she is too sweet. Despite her dislike of the cucumber. 

Making the dining room into our pantry. I need the space. I need the organization. Many times I thought we were out of things due to them being all mixed up and in boxes. Now it is spread out and visible. 

And will too soon be full. I need to move the half gallon jars to the shelf for milk. And buy more. SEE THE MILK BUCKET?? I am not overly excited. 

Transplanted our lemon and apple trees this evening with Naomi and Wisdom. It was mostly fun and event free. When I started Naomi came running saying 'garden!!garden!!' It surprised me. But she also surprised me today telling me to 'get it! My water' and 'momma, come Fawn. Come ear! ( which meant she thought it a good time to get back out to the main pasture to see Fawn. I obliged. Had to. Her talking is getting real. Really fast!

Not too much mess... Once I'm organized a bit more microgreens will return. 

Seed saving. I clean then as I can. 

Our minuscule sunflower harvest. I hope to do some major planting next year. To share with the animals. 

Been drying peppers. Jalapeño. Chili. Habaneros. And I can't remember the last. Oops.   

Our pumpkins are not keeping well. At. All. Trying to cook some daily and freeze. 

Yikes. Knocked down weeds to the sad barn. 

Removing hard wear. And anything salvageable. Bittersweet. A lot of animals were raised in there. We will miss it. But somethings are going into the new barn. 

Hi spider. Beautiful guy. 

Wire we are pulling out. 

Dead pallet stanchion. I may never have goats again. At least milk goats. I think I'm ok with that.  Until I buy chèvre at the grocery store. Ouch.  

Sadness. 

That's what a goat pen without goats looks like. Yeah. That is a lot of our allergy issues this year. 

Finally realized instead of pulling weeds for Fawn I can tie her outside the fence while I fill her water and pick up. She made a good dent. You just can't tell in the picture. But maybe after a couple times it will be really great. 

I needed a hose. Badly. So Patrick got me a huge one. I need to take out a short one I. The middle at some point. 

Pretty girl. I love her. I'm thankful for her. (Diarrhea today. Another sign of labor nearing) I sprinkled diatomaceous earth on her back today. She looked like a powdered sugar donut. Hoping it helps with flys. But a couple hrs later she had more flys than ever on her. As you can see. Ugh. 

I ordered in some neem oil. It should be in tomorrow. But I'll wait til Monday to see what the DE does first. Unless she calves. I don't want to milk a first time momma cow while flys pester her. One of these methods better work. 

   I decided to leave her halted on this afternoon. She is good and let's me put it on. But it takes me a minute due to her trying to get the flys away. I never leave it on anymore. Because the neighbor likes to take it off her. It worries him. He is a horse man. I just need it on for a while. Though I might just leave it on during the day only.