farm - My Little Soapbox

Tag: farm

“No Name” Farm

We’re working on finding a good business name for our farm. It’s not as easy as you’d think because there are a number of small farms around/near us with great names already. Plus we’ve got *way* to many heads in on that discussion! But I need to get some of our information logged before the season gets to far and I completely forget everything!

So I’m starting with our geese.

The breed we are going to be raising are Pomeranian Gray Saddleback. This year I purchase twelve geese: eight girls and four boys. Our the delivery date was 4/7/09 (record keeping). One of them we already know will most likely not be kept as breeding stock. This was a minor disappointment but I intend to breed with eyes toward the breed standard. And this little goose in question seems to have a crooked bill. I will reevaluate them all after they are completely feathered out.

They are currently camping out in the front of my hen house. Sometimes I’m very thankful for the way we made our hen house. That crazy little entryway has served us in many different capacities. Next up on the goose front is to make the “fowl house” that will house the ducks and the geese during most of the year. We actually would prefer to not have them in at all but our predators just will not allow us to leave them ranging all the time. This is very frustrating as they (geese) do not do well when kept inside. Our plan though is to close them up in their little house each evening and open them each morning. Our investment is too large to do otherwise. With some wonderful help today we go our goose paddock fenced! I will probably be moving the goslings to the new paddock (and fresh grass) this week. And the “fowl house” should be re-floored, moved and ready to go in the next two weeks.

Since the fowl house also might house our ducklings I’ll take a moment to talk about them too! We’re going to be raising Silver Appleyards. I have eleven ducklings at the moment. I had to get them straight run so I’m waiting to see what I ended up with for genders. Bonus with the ducklings is that I can tell gender from their feather pattern. They are currently in our brooder box but will be moving from there to the front of our hen house for a few weeks until they are fully feathered. Then we’ll see how they do if they run in the same paddock as the geese. I’m not fully sure on housing them together given that we didn’t get them (brood) together. But in years past we did run our geese and ducks together successfully so I’m hopeful that it will work.

Just a small farm update from our “no name” farm!

Author name:: Bobbi
Publish date:: May 12th, 2009

Ducks in Trees

That is a very poor picture of a duck specifically a wood duck in our tree. I was heading out to chores the other day and heard odd flapping noise off by the drive. I had thought it was the Mourning Doves but when I looked I saw ducks. Ducks in my tree. I dashed back in to get the camera. I dragged poor Harley in the house with me so he’d not scare them away. Poor pup had been heading out for his morning run and was a bit confused as to why I was demanding he go back inside. I tried to sneak up to get a better photo but the ducks (a male and female) were very skittish. So I only managed to snap two quick and very poor shots.

But still it’s evidence! Evidence of ducks actually hanging out in my tree!

And now for a gratuitous shot of ducks not in my tree:

That would be one of my ducklings! They arrived early in the morning so I had no small helpers up yet for my photo shoot. Not an easy thing to take a picture of a duckling while holding it. Can you see the look he’s giving me?! He’s telling me off I’m sure of it. They are a bit bigger now but settling in nicely. In other fowl notes our goslings are beginning to feather out which means they are in that ugly fuzz and feather stage! They are also not so small anymore. I still marvel at how fast they grow.

Author name:: Bobbi
Publish date:: May 6th, 2009

I’m so busy….its making my head spin

Every time I start to think about my “busy” I can’t help but hear this song:

Dizzy – Tommy Roe

I’m not complaining though! On the contrary I’m having a good time flitting from project to project here at home. We’ve got our goslings to let out in the mornings that aren’t rainy. The chickens to let out everyday. Garden to weed that is if it ever dries out again! Harley to exercise everyday – my should may not survive that dog’s ability to fetch again and again and again…repeat 20x. Outdoor projects are sprouting everywhere with a few big ones coming up in the next few weeks. “Big” being relative to the fact that we are a tiny crew of a Grandpa, a Mama and two small boys!

Speaking of farm news: 0ur ducklings arrived today and our housed in the brooder box. Picture maybe tomorrow as I’m to comfy to run downstairs to get the camera.

And that’s just the outdoor stuff! We’re currently working every day on a pantry and food storage move/re-organization. This is both interesting and disturbing especially when you find something in the back of the pantry from 2003! Thankfully it was a dried good…a really, really stale dried good. Then there is my on going effort to reduce the amount of stuff in my house. The removal of stuff involves lots of protracted negotiations from all involved. And the boys are really good little persuasive arguers! You see if you think that toy really should go out of the house when they are done with you!

Author name:: Bobbi
Publish date:: April 29th, 2009