EAch spring chicken town gets the once over and the coops are liberated and cleaned then pulled around the yard all summer. Fresh perches go inside and the tarps are taken off and washed. This eliminates parasites and keeps the coops clean. This winter though, I have decided to keep only trios of the birds, so the numbers should fit in the pink insulated coop except for the waterfowl. The Muscovy ducks tend to prefer the insulated coop but the others do not and find the shelter warm enough for them. 

This is a huge job every spring to take apart and clean up. It also means that in the fall it happens all over again, but with less birds this fall, the hoop shelters do not need to be set up. I will put clear plastic on one for a green house for winter days. Time to sell some more laying hens and keep only the Chanteclers and Ameraucanas plus the old girls, like Sandra, the Speckled Sussex that I got the first year here. She can just stay forever. Finding ways of making the work load less would be a good thing. 

In the meantime, I am cleaning chicken town up. Whew!

I have mown more lawns in my lifetime than most people who do not do it for a living, I think. I mowed my parent's lawn as a teenager and also several of the neighbour's lawns and even when I had a house of my own, I still mowed my parent's lawn. My father was a paraplegic and my mother thought mowing was for men, so she never did it. My father would pay me $20 to mow the lawn. I would have done it for free, but somehow he felt better by paying me, so I accepted the cash. 

The thing is, I did not enjoy mowing lawns. I hated the stinky exhaust from the mowers and I got very very dirty, covered with dust on the dry days or mud on the wet days. Thank goodness we had no mosquitos and few flies living by the ocean. Every once in a while I thought I should tear up a bit more of the lawn for gardens, but it was difficult to manage the gardens I already had. Before living with my parents to care for them, I did my parent's garden and my own. When I got here to Elk Point and my farm, there were several acres to mow, I think around three. Who wants three acres of lawn? Not me. I bought a ride on lawn mower and it still took a long time to mow. 

So, I fenced some off for one house and more for the animals and still there was too much lawn left over. Today, I scraped the sod off an area in the front yard and then worked the soil a bit for a garden. Yes, a front lawn, er, used to be lawn, garden. My son pointed out to me that people use that area to turn their cars and trucks around (he does, but I don't) and hay is unloaded there. Hay could be unloaded a little further down the driveway if he didn't have three vehicles parked there. I am going to move the livestock panels that the calves lived in over the winter and clean that area for store parking, or hay unloading or vehicles turning. 

In the meantime, there is a garden spot almost ready for planting. The manure from two years ago need to be brought over and put there and the electric poultry fence put around it to keep the chickens out. Those chickens will scratch up all the seeds and eat the shoots if the area is not electric fenced and even then, most of them fly, so they might fly over. I hope not. In the winter that area can be used to turn around on if some one has to turn. Now that the bed and breakfast is no longer a concern, who cares what I do in the front yard? Grow a garden? Yup! And so it starts...

I bought some organic bananas a couple of weeks ago, but didn't eat them because they were gassed and turned over ripe in one day. I don't like ripe bananas at all and they sat there. I thought perhaps I would make some banana loaf, but then I would also eat it, so I didn't and today, I finally gave the hand of bananas to the pigs. 

My Berkshires loved bananas, peels and all. I had not given much banana to the pot belly pigs though. Wilbur came running when I approached his pen, as he always does, and I gave him the bananas. He sniffed them and then proceeded to roll in them. He squashed them and mashed them with his hairy body, but Clara was trying to get one to eat. No luck for poor Clara, for Wilbur was wearing 'eau de banana' for the rest of the day. I have no idea why he would do that, but he did. 

Piglet was also trying to get some banana and didn't mind taking it off Wilbur, but Wilbur did not cotton to that in the least and told Piglet so in a very loud voice, then proceeded to play bite him to get rid of him. Imagine that! Wilbur's son trying to eat him! 

Well to say the least the episode was a wee bit comical, but you really had to be there to appreciate it. There is never a dull day on the Fat Ewe Farm!

Celia is the herd boss in the goat yard, not the  biggest by any means, but certainly the one who bosses the rest around. She is a great mother and has had quads every year. I want to keep at least two of her daughters this year, so she is for sale. She is hardy and strong and the best of everything, with the one exception that she is bossy. I think the goat yard will be better without her. 

This year she had a very strange birth. One doeling was still born, and looked like it was about 3 weeks overdue. Then she had the quads and when she expelled the placenta, a fetus of about 3 months was with it, aborted, of course. The smallest of the quads was sold as a bottle baby to ensure that she was going to be fed. The bigger sisters tended to push her away too much. She is well loved in her new home and her owner dotes on her. One of the remaining girls is being pushed away by the two strongest babies. I am thinking of removing her and bottle feeding her or supplementing her and letting her remain with the group. It is easier for me to bring her close, but harder on her. I suppose I will try the supplemental feedings first. That way she can remain with her family, though sometimes the mother will reject the baby if does not smell like her milk. Time will tell. 

There are two left from Daphne's quads and they are growing well and are bouncy and strong. Soon it will be weaning time. I think about milking Daphne but I dont use milk except for soap and occasionally to make cheese. I suppose I could get a supply and make some cheese and freeze some for soap making in the winter. She is not a very cooperative milker though, or at least was not last year. 

There is one other kid from the Angora, 13. The baby is half Nigerian and female and has a smooth coat which is very soft, most like cashmere. I will have to wait and see how it goes. Hand spinners love Nigora fibre for spinning. The Angora goat is an excellent mother, but stays well out of Celia's way, as does Daphne. The young goats, Sofi and Pippin, Tommy and Timmy, avoid  Celia and the bit Nubians do too. The rest of the herd tends to get along fine. Celia would be a great goat with one of her babies for a small family, just on her own. She is a protective mother and also teaches her babies to fend for themselves very well. I will be sorry to see Celia go, but I don't want to add too many new goats and keep the older ones too. So, Celia is for sale. Sorry goatie. Time for greener pastures for you and thank you for all your wonderful babies! 

In the old days, a chicken flock was self perpetuating, that is, the hens laid eggs and hatched them to produce new birds every year. This provided eggs for the farmer and meat at the end of the summer when the roosters and old hens were butchered. The chickens lived in coops not well insulated if at all. Some farmers would pile straw over the building, but most did not. The body heat of the birds had to keep the coop warm enough for them to survive and they had to be hardy. 

The Fat Ewe Farm Flock is a flock of various breeds chosen for three things: winter hardiness, foraging ability and egg laying, but broodiness is a factor as well. The Chanteclers, both the Partidge and the Whites, are excellent brooders. I have two Silkie hens and they too are known for being great setters. 

In addition to these birds, there is a Khaki Campbell on a nest, which is considered rare for that breed. They were bred for egg laying and the broodiness trait was left out, but I have a strain of the breed that will hatch their own, thankfully. Every year, one or two of the Khaki Campbells hatch babies. There are also two Muscovies sitting on nests and a half bantam hen that I know of. That does not mean there are not others. Last year there was a hen who hatched 12 babies under the sheep shelter, and I was not aware of that until she came out with them. That is the true meaning of free range chickens. You never know where the heck they are! Every day is an Easter egg hunt too, because they are inventing new nests and laying anywhere but the nest boxes which are now mostly occupied by brooding hens. 

I am thankful for the hens and their ability to raise their babies without me having to incubate and brood the chicks myself. Isn't nature so grand?

The Farm Store is underway!

After the chores and business, I began the arduous task of painting the store, using organic chemical free paint left over from the organic lifestyle store I used to own. The price tage was still on the 5 gallon bucket of solvent free paint - $215.00. For those people who had no choice but to use this paint or not paint at all due to chemcical sensitivities, the price tag was worth every penny. 

The aim using the white paint was to give a white washed effect, not a perfect paint job. It iwas to freshen up the old granary and make the surfaces clean again. So I climbed the 8 foot ladder and started on the rafters. I could envision the entire job completed, but underestimated the time it would take by a day. I was pretty sure I would finish today. There is no power to the granary and when it started to get dark around 9:30, I was almost done. It was hard work, climbing up and down the ladder to reposition it between the rafters and paint the rough wood with a brush. The entire ceiling and rafters were hand painted with the brush! Toward the end, i had only two spots not completed, both of them difficult to paint sections. I was determined to finish, but had only eaten 4 duck eggs and salsa for breakfast and had nothing more the rest of the day and was also starved. I looked up at the ceiling and out at the light, knowing I still had a few chores to do too and got busy. My hands were sore, my feet were sore and most of all my back was sore from bending backwards slightly on the ladder. I don't bend that way very well due to the scoliosis I have. Still, I persevered and finially, the last brush stroke was done. I had a bit of paint in the pot and painted a base coat around the window and door trim and then it was all used up. 

Tomorrow the rest of the store interior will be done and then I need to nab some one to help me hang a shelf and put some shelves up on the rafters. The shelves are from the local buy and sell online site and are 8 feet long and 1 foot wide, but heavy. I am going to paint each  one of the shelves a pastel colour before putting them up, one pale blue, one pale yellow and one pale pink and most likely the other a pale green. I want to paint a trailing vine and flowers on the wall and stencil some patterns to simulate old wallpaper, too. I think the old cupboard from the 1950's house with the curved front will become a pale yellow tone tomorrow too. 

Then the stock can arrive. It is the begiinning of the liquidation of my life. I will enjoy saying good bye to the many things I have come to love and some not so much, too. I will remember going to garage sales with my parents as a teen ager and later as an adult, and the items my mother purchased, little trinkets and china, will fondly be offered to another for their enjoyment. There are so many items to seel, from clothing and shoes, to linens and china, that I am allowing a full five years to liquidate it all. The store, due to not being insulated and having no heat source, will be open only in the fairer months., and in winter I will have time to make soap and sew to stock the store the following year. There is a ton of fabric from two previous stores I had, the interior design studio and the organic lifestyle store. I think the best use will be to make duvet covers and shams and simple window panels and maybe pillows. 

And so, the beginning of the end has actually started. Stay with me during the next five years to see how it moves and changes as fond memories are unleashed and let go. I can only imagine after the liquidation of my life, how free I will feel. I think!

I have a pair of Bantam Splash Silkies. The rooster is a cocky little fellow, but he tanlges with the big roosters who are three times his size, and he got hurt. So, I put him with his wife in a large cage to protect them. They did not seem to mind the confinement at all, and the rooster was very protective of his lady. Soon she had 7 lovely little tiny eggs in her nest and she began to brood them. The rooster slept beside her at night to keep her warm. Isn't that every so touching? Unlike ruminants, who get up at night to eat, chickens actually sleep when it is night, and they sleep quite heavily. 

Today, there was some commotion in their box, so I moved in closer to see what the trouble was. One of the eggs had pipped and out popped a very tiny little chick, definitely a Splash Silkie. Unfortunately, he got himself out of the nest and got cold. The mother did not attempt to bring him back so I opened the cage and set him in the nest. She returned to her nest to finish brooding the eggs, which will most likely hatch during the night and tomorrow. The Bantams brood for approximately 21 days, but could be only 20 or as much as 23, depending on the conditions. If it was cold, the eggs may have taken longer. She was a very good setter, true to the Silkie hen reputation. She is a little nervous without her husband, but I am not sure he should be there until the chicks are hatched and able to return to their mother if they get cold. 

I checked before I came in and heard peeping, and am assuming the little chick is just fine. Hopefully by tomorrow, there will be 6 more little ones in the nest. Way to go Mamma Silkie! Thank you for your motherly dedication to the continuance of your species. Isn't the Creator wonderful? 

This yard is a work in progress and will never be finished. The former owners, though they lived here for just over 30 years, planted very little edible. There were only some crab apple trees and Sea Buckthorn and a few berry bushes. The sow plowed up the berry bushes unfortunately, and the goats ate the raspberry bushes right down to the root when they liberated themselves one day last summer. I thought the raspberries would not come back because the rest of the summer, there was no life there, but today I actually see that some canes are coming from the roots. This is great, because raspberries grow well here and I love them. The variety they planted produced continuously through out the summer, giving lovely big tasty berries that I ate with heavy cream and a little cane sugar. Oh, to die for, it was. 

Since I have been here I have planted three apple trees, a pear, a plum, four cherries, a variety of berries from Haskap to Gogi and lots of perennieal herbs. Today I was busy gardening for a while, though I was conscious of the time. I need to move my belongings over to the bed and breakfast house and also pain the store and set it up, plus still do all the farm work, so time is something there is never enough of. I planted the roses and realized I did not have a hose long enough to reach that side of the house. I am not sure where I put the splitter for the hose last year when I dismantled everything. A couple of the hoses were sliced with the lawn mower and need to be repaired. That never did get done last year. It is on the to do list. I will have to use a watering can in the meantime. I also weeded some of the area around the dick that was installed two summers ago. It is amazing how quickly the long grass takes hold here. It is the grass the naimals love to eat the best, even the dogs and cats. They all munch it. Ducks go crazy for it too and the sheep, goats, chickens…well everything on the farm loves it. I should try it!

There is a clover type of weed that has sprung up everywhere. It has a very long thin tap root. Weeds that improve soils are found in places that speficially need special improvement. That soil is poor under the compost I put there when the deck was done, and the long tap root bring up nutrients from deep in the soil and at the same time loosens the soil and aerates it. I just don't need those weeds in the flower bed anymore. Last year I let them stay there. I did not see many dandelions in that area at all. I seeded some the first two years I was here, so I guess I will have to seed more. They are excellent for so many reasons and make good salad, wine, pickles, coffee, medicines…well, let's say dandelion plants are one of the best plants on the farm, along with plantain, which is considered another weed. 

It was a beautiful spring day, 20 degrees, and sunny and I enjoyed working in the dirt with my bare hands. The touch of the soil and connection with the earth was good and much missed over the winter. I should have put my moose hide moccasins on so my feet would feel the pulse of the Earth too, but I am currently not sure where they are. I am thankful for the beautiful day, such a day it was. 

It all started when I offered eggs for free on the local online classified group from St. Paul on Facebook. One person made a comment about my kindness and then 290 more did, or so. After a four year struggle to 'fit in', just because I offered something for free, I suddenly was viewed as a nice person. In the past I have been ridiculed, laughed at, dishonoured, had the SPCA called on me for abuse and cruelty to animals and so on. I have not changed. I am still me, but the perception of whom I am has, all because of one small gesture of kindness. 

Then the St. Paul journal got wind of the viral (in St. Paul) post and asked to do a story on me, which ended up a whole page. I am thrilled. The story is very pleasant painting me as a soft spoken animal lover. I am an animal lover, that is for sure, but also not a new thing. Soft spoken, well, um, er, I don't ever recall that adjective describing me, but as my dear daughter said, maybe I have mellowed in my golden years. 

Anyhow, I am changing the world. Perceptions can be changed and through the perseverence and kindness, small gestures can move mountains. Ask Ghandi. I am not comparing myself to him, mind you, but you know what I mean. How nice to be noticed after a 4 year sojourn all by myself. And how nice to be noticed in a nice way. Thank you Creator for your ever present love. May I one day be able to show it to the capacity that I am truly capable. What a wonderful world it would be!

Ok, I have had it. Today I picked up several of the lambs and they are infested with keds. The keds are wingless flies that live their entire lives on sheep. They suck the blood, much like ticks, engorging their bodies with the meal. They mate and then a single larvae is formed in the uterus of the female. At the stage of the larvae they are impossible to squish. When they are engorged they pop like balloons. I know that is a gross thought, and it is gross but I have been picking keds off the lambs for a while now and I have the hang of it. I know when a female is about to lay her larvae because she is not engorged and the larvae is live and bit in her abdomen and appears white. There are two or three females in the picture of thiese keds, but none are ready to lay. The small cocoon looking ked is an immature ked, recently hatched and fed. They pop like baloons with little pressure. The small black bits and digested blood and are not very visible to the naked eye. The kids leave these feces in the wool and enough of the feces can stain the wool a dark reddish brown colour. No one wants to spin wool that is infested with bugs, even if they are dead, so basically it has to be burned. The wool can be put in plastic bags to kill the keds and the larvae, but that takes about 5 weeks in total and the carcasses of those bugs are still there and if the wool was used, they have to be picked out. Another gross. 

So, I am going to pen the sheep and administer a drug which I do not like to use, Ivermectin. Since the keds suck blood, the systemic drug will kill those that feed. It does not kill the larvae or pupas. These will have to be killed with a second and possibly third dose of the drug. I do not like to administer any drugs to the sheep, but when the infestation is as bad as it is, then something must be done. Since I have not been successful getting a shearer to come, I will have to treat the sheep with a drug rather than a pesticide. The pesticide can only be administered properly after shearing. So the sheep are not shorn and must be treated systemically. I guess I will have to takle shearing as well since they do need to be done. I have said all this before, but today, after picking too many keds off the lambs, I know I cannot wait any longer.I have the Ivermectin and will go ahead with the plan tomorrow. I bought a marker to put a dot on each sheep that has been treated, until all of them have the coloured dots. The lambs are too young to treat and must be wiped down with the pesticide instead. Some of the Ivermectin will pass through the milk, but likely not enough to kill the keds on the lambs. I will consult a veterinarian first, to be sure there is no other way to handle the situation without shearing. This whole think is horrible. Gross. I hate it. Yuk. But it does have to be dealt with now. NOW.