Building a legacy rooted in respect for the earth, family traditions, and shared knowledge
This morning, we drove an hour away to pick up four sheep to start our flock. They are Dorper / Khatadin mixes. We have three rams and one ewe. We’ll process the rams for meat and will eventually purchase more ewes for breeding.
We’re working on training them to the electric fence now and getting them acclimated to our farm.
The aquaponics system continues to grow produce for us. Right now, we’ve got squash, zucchini, and tomatoes in full bloom.
I’m sure the neighbors think we’re crazy by this point…
It’s still a bit chilly at night so we have the heat lamps in the chicken tractors while they’re out in the front pasture. At night, the white tarps glow from the lights and remind me of Chinese Lanterns. Delicious, yummy, chicken flavored Chinese lanterns.
One of the things we take pride in when slaughtering animals is that we use as much of the animal as we can. It’s one of the ways that we honor its sacrifice to our family. This is just one such example. Most people don’t have much use for the chicken feet but we take the time to dehydrate them. This preserves the feet for weeks (even months) and makes for fantastic, healthy dog treats.
It’s pretty crazy how some animals develop a personality all of their own. This pig (Periwinkle, I think) acts just like a dog. She wags her little tail and loves being petted. In these photos, she hopped up on top of her feeder to get closer so that I could scratch her head.
Meanwhile, while her sister (Petunia) is nice and is friendly, there is a huge difference between the two. Periwinkle is more friendly and awesome in general.
We added three additional pigs to our flock, herd, whatever you call a group of pigs. The girls have decided to name them Poppey, Periwinkle, and Petunia.
Continue reading “The three little piggies”We took the plunge and purchased our first pig today. He’s a Yorkshire boar. He’ll remain un-cut and will be used to breed the other pigs (the ones that we don’t have yet, lol).
He’s small at this point, but it won’t be long before he’s big and strong.
Even with the ride home and the change of scenery, he was still friendly towards the girls and was very curious overall. Kaylee decided that one of the weeds around the pig pen certainly tasted better than the food he had, so she should feed it to him. He didn’t seem to mind.
It’s time to process another batch of our pasture-raised Cornish Cross chickens. This batch looks great and will provide nutrient packed meals for our family as well as our customers’ families. They’re moved to a new batch of fresh grass each day where they get to eat bugs, forage on clover and other grasses, and enjoy premium non-GMO feed. They live a fantastic life here on the farm and it shows in the results.
Today we welcomed 25 turkeys to the farm. They’ll spend the next four months with us in their deluxe accommodations where they’ll have access to the great outdoors and the pristine views of our pasture. They’ll eat gourmet meals consisting of bugs and insects as well as premium non-GMO feed.
If you are interested in any of these turkeys, they’ll be looking for new homes just before Thanksgiving.
