One Proud Mama

So last night I decided to go grab some bales with the truck but there was one problem. The truck had the wrong hitch on. The guy that bought our mobile home came by last night to pick up the skirting so Darren was busy dealing with him. I thought I would wait until he had a moment to help me with the truck but Reid INSISTED on doing it ourselves. He showed me what hitch we needed for our black trailer, so we put it on. Then I thought I would get Darren to hook up the trailer for us. Reid insisted again that we could do it. So we drove the truck over to the trailer, I backed it up to the general direction of the hitch. Reid got out and totally gave me directions while I backed up. This was my first time to ever to do this without Darren by the way. lol I watched him as he guided me with hand signals, pointing his finger this way or that way. Then he put his little hand up to say 'stop'. So I get out and go back there to take a look, expecting to be way off, but the ball was DIRECTLY under the hitch!! We were bang on!!! I couldn't believe what a good job he did and he's only five and a half! I was sure proud!! And impressed!! Why I didn't take a picture of that I don't know. So we hooked on and away we went to pick bales. My little boy is growing up way too fast!

 The weekend was good! Darren got our mailbox hung up!  We bought it two years ago I think and just never put it up. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner at Wendy and Dave's yesterday, which was delish!! I think we all ate too much! : )
All the combining is done. Baler broke down so he had to get a friend to finish up baling straw. Still have bales to move. Still have potatoes and the rest of the carrots to pull. I'm hoping to get some done today once it warms up a bit. Woke up this morning and it was -1! Getting chilly!

Busy, busy....

Well 8 months have come and gone. Lots to write about! So we bought the farm! So exciting! Started in March renovating the farm house, which was built in 1927. Took us two months, 14 cans of paint, and cost around $7,000. Totally redid Reid's walls, insulated, dry walled the walls and ceiling. Painted Erika and Annika's rooms. Painted master bedroom and ceiling, and put in new carpet. Painted living room and put in new carpet. Put down laminate flooring in dining room. Painted front entry. Painted office and put in new carpet. New linoleum in kitchen. Totally gutted the bathroom down to the dirt under the floor and re-did everything. Reid's room and the bathroom were the most work. We were so happy in May when we could finally move in! Still have a couple more painting jobs to do but I figure leave that for winter. Soon after that we put the mobile up for sale, took a couple months but it finally sold!

Reid passed playschool at the end of May, the girls passed grade 5 at the end of June!
Went on our vacation to Wood Lake again, took in some more wineries and actually found a winery, Volcanic Hills, with a kids corner with toys and stuff for them to do while I perused the wine selection. That was awesome. lol


The rest of the summer consisted of work around the farm. Because of the drought the barley didn't grow good so it all ended up as green feed for the cows. So Darren had a huge amount of baling to do. He had a lot of help though, friends came by with their own equipment and helped him bale which was hugely appreciated!


Kids started school beginning of September, the girls grade 6, Reid Kindergarten. So far they are all enjoying school! And they have already caught a case of the sniffles. Reid can't seem to shake his cold though.


Found out the sunroom has ants! Grrrr! So I have been battling them for about a month! From the looks of things, they have been living there for quite some time! I'm talking years! We have to tear into the sunroom floor and see what's going on under there. Hopefully find the nest.


We put in another pasture, just finished that last weekend. A water line was put in for another automatic waterer, so Darren got the cement pad poured for that on Saturday.

Our mobile home also moved out of here Saturday! Yay! It was bittersweet seeing our first home being taken away. But we are so happy it's gone, now we just need to figure out what to do with that empty space where the trailer was.


Chickens are doing good, the numbers are going down though. I'm finding it tough to go out there and deal with them, I'm not enjoying them like I used to. I'm hoping that changes. It really is nice to have fresh eggs!


So it's been pretty busy around here, the projects keep coming, still have to put up a long wind fence and build another shelter.


Soon we will bring the heifers home from down the road. I can't wait till they come home! I miss them! lol Darren tried to AI them in the spring but only a couple took. Had to do a second round of it, I'm hoping more took. A friend of ours had to put some heifers and his bull with ours, he had no pasture because of the drought where he is from. We are hoping his bull cleaned up the heifers that weren't pregnant. There's going to be some preg checking in the near future!


Still haven't got any combining done, everything is too tough. We've been getting rain every 3-4 days now, which we could have really used in the summer. It came too late. Still a ton of bales to move to the yard as well.


So there is a recap of what's been going on around here. Hopefully this winter will be more relaxing than the spring/summer we had! I'm also hoping for a tropical vacation this winter too! Gosh darn it, we deserve it!

Two Years Gone By!

Well here we are, two years later! Where does the time go?! I have really missed writing on this blog. This will probably sound like a lame excuse, but it seems I never have the time to do it anymore. So many distractions. I've really got to make more time for myself. Yes I am a stay at home mom, but that doesn't mean I get to sit on my butt all day! lol
So after my last post, we started into cows march 2013. Bought our first two. Not long after that bought 4 cow calf pairs, Herefords. We have been pretty happy with this breed! Soon after that bought a bull named Yahtzee! He's a very gentle beast! Everything with the calving last spring went swimmingly! After calving and buying more cows here and there, to this date, our herd is up to 20! Looking forward to this calving season coming up in a couple months! Hope it goes as good as last time. Chickens, we are up to 45! Got 3 coops set up now, one for Buff Orpingtons, one for Ameraucanas/olive eggers, and the other for Welsummers! Chickens are seriously ADDICTING! Lol There are so many more breeds I would love to have! So far this farm thing has been good to us. Can't wait until we actually buy the farm, which is our next step!
Farming aside, the kids have been growing so fast! The little man will be 5 soon. He started play school in the fall and loves it! He didn't really want to go at first. He said he doesn't want to go to school and he wants to be a farmer! So cute. I have no doubt he will be a farmer when he gets older! The girls will be 11 soon and they are in grade 5! They haven't been interested in anything extra curricular, but I'm sure they will come across something they like. They love to swim! They will start swimming lessons through the school real soon here. They also like baking, so I'm thinking I really need to do more with them soon here too.
Looking forward to summer holidays already. Found a place in B.C. two years ago, Wood Lake RV. This summer will be our third year in a row! Can't wait!
So there's a quick overview of what has been going on around here! Oh and Happy New Year! I have a few resolutions, to lose a little weight (I know that's like everyone's number one resolution), dress better (been wearing sweats and t shirts way too much lol), and blog more! Chow for now! : )

Incubator Time!

Well I'm totally excited to say the least! Just got our Hova bator incubator today! It came with the egg turner and flashlight to candle the eggs when ready. I have to say it's so simple to use! You just add the water (which needs to be topped off a couple times a week maybe), plug it in, and voila! It does everything on it's own! It has the digital display which is nice, simple to read and it keeps the temp and humidity where it should be! I added 4 Ameraucana eggs and 3 brown eggs tonight. So we'll see in about a week if anything is actually going to grow!
I just have to keep Reid's hands off the incubator though. I have it in our living room, the only place we can really keep it, and already Reid has opened it up and taken out the eggs and laid them out on the table. Grrr. I can see this as being the only challenge in hatching chicks.

Coop Scoop...In the Beginning Stages

Well I said I would post some pics...so here we go.
Darren's dad used to have pigs on the farm here, but he has quit that now. Just no money in it anymore which is sad. The barns have stood empty for about 5 or more years now. (Can't remember. I have a terrible memory) When we decided to take on chickens Darren turned a corner of one of the barns into a coop.

 

 He took out a row of stalls, pressure washed the floor and walls, then started building!

He also installed a south facing window for some natural lighting.

The kids were pretty excited for what was done so far! Reid was ready to help with his hammer in hand! : )

 This is the first six and rooster we got from our friends.

 

And here is the second set of six we got from our friends again! Mr. Rooster didn't know what to do with himself! So many ladies all for him! lol He is the rooster I talked about in my previous post, the one that I had to let out of the coop and he disappeared. I miss that guy.

 

Coop Scoop

Again, time has slipped through my fingers. I haven't posted all spring/summer. My bad! Anyways, back in March I decided to take on chickens. Yes you heard right, chickens! I have always wanted to do some kind of hobby farming, goats was going to be my first venture, but decided on chickens. I just wanted to have them for the eggs, not for meat. Raising them for meat just makes no sense to me, not worth the money in my opinion. Unless I was going to do the butchering myself, then I could see it being worth while, but I REALLY have no interest right now for that.
So Darren cleaned up a corner in the old pig barn and made it into a room for a coop! He did awesome! We got our first batch of chickens from friends of ours, six leghorns and a roo. I was pretty excited! We then got another batch from the same friends, six ISA Browns! So much nicer looking than the leghorns!
So time went by, egg production was okay. I was selling eggs to a few people for $2 a dozen. Then the chickens started dying, not sure if from old age or something else. Egg production slowed down of course so we need more chickens.
Went to the Odd and Unusual sale in Thorsby in the spring looking for Americaunas. They lay the blue/green eggs! Saw a couple there I wanted but they went for over $20 a chicken! Way too expensive.
Then a friend told me about a woman selling chickens for $7 each. So we went to her place and picked up a mix of 7 chickens and another roo (half Americauna!!) There were a few Americauna hens in the mix too! (future plan is to hatch these eggs and sell chickens at auction)
The original rooster I had didn't like the new one we got, he bullied him hard! lol He wasn't letting him eat or drink. The new one was getting pretty weak and could barely walk, so we decided to kick the old rooster out of the coop. He lasted a couple days before he disappeared. I was a little upset about that. I loved his personality and his pretty colors. Oh well. There will be others I guess.
So I had a pretty good flock! Summer flew by and I was getting about 9 eggs a day. A few more chickens died late summer. I picked up a couple more customers!
Then this fall with the less daytime light egg production dropped to only 2 or 3 eggs a day. More chickens were needed!
Found a lady selling 8 Rhode Island Reds for only $1 each!! We picked them up on friday. I was so excited! They are beautiful birds!! And so friendly. Everytime I go in the coop two of them hang around me the whole time and peck at me a bit. It's too funny. So we were at 19 hens and the roo.
Then we found more ( yes more!lol) just on the next road from us! Just some white leghorns. I was kind of shocked when we went to pick them up. It was a little room with about 300 chickens in cages, 3 to each cage. They have no neck feathers because of them reaching through the cages to eat their food. We bought 15 for only $10! Brought them home and incorporated them into the coop with the others. Well, these leghorns have never been out of their cages so they all just huddle together in a corner. They don't know how to use nesting boxes so they just lay eggs wherever they are standing. Some have gotten squashed and eaten by the other chickens. Not sure if they will learn the nesting box behavior or not. I'm hoping so! The roo is picking on them quite a bit, but I'm sure he will simmer down soon. So now we have 34 hens and a roo! Yesterday 13 eggs!
So there is a quick overview of the coop. Pictures will come soon!
Chow for now! Gotta go gather some eggs! : )