Saying Goodbye To The Farm

This post is sad and hard to write. We have had to make a lot of hard decisions in the last few months and one of the biggest is letting go of the farm. The expense of running the farm, the way the animals deserve it to run, has become prohibitive. Hay is up to $18 a bale so that alone with our long winter season is beyond our means. There were a lot of personal things behind it as well. We gave our beloved goats to a friend so we will still get to visit and see our spring babies born. For now though the best interest of our family is to move to town and scale back. I will be doing my best to urban homestead and provide my children with the same values and lifestyle we have established.

Work Day

Fall is fast approaching and that means it is time to get the farm ready for a long winter. The chore list can be daunting. We have to shore up fences, build new shelters, cut and stack wood, clean and store tools for the season. It is a lot of work and a lot of fun.

The Fall animal routine is special. Fall is breeding time on the farm. Goats and sheep are seasonal breeders and usually only come into season in the fall. That being said, we did have a complete surprise this year. Our sheep had delivered twins and triplets in February. They should not have come into season again until October. Despite breeding science and a 5 month gestation period, they managed to pop another set of twins out in July, 3 weeks short of a full term gestation. The twins are robust and healthy. We are floored at the miracle but we will take it.

The sheep are out for fall breeding but still need the yearly work up. The goats are due to be bred, so decisions need to be made. Sarah's dairy goats need improvement if she wants to show the offspring. We order up a buck from a local breeder for her goats. We need a buck with good udder formation in his pedigree. My fainting goats are easier but we did have one pair I won't breed again, the baby was not as quality as I like. In preparation for mating we trim hooves, vaccinate, worm and fix fences. Bad fences are a farmers nightmare when bucks go into rut!

Jacob preformed his annual acrobatics while catching the goats and ended up covered in goat berries!

Anna was very interested and wanted to do the shots herself.

Dixie was also very interested, in eating everyone else's share of grain.

Jacob and Sarah handled the shots and wormer.

Sarah, Wyatt and I went out to shore up the fences.

The T-post driver weighs 50 lbs.

I am super woman!

After all the T-posts are finished I am off to find all the little rascals that disappeared during the hard work.

Riding BIKES?

What?

But who could be mad? Look at that face!

Fall

Fall, like spring, is a busy time on a farm. Lots of cleaning and shoring up for winter. Building new shelters for animals and feed. Weaning our summer babies and integrating them into the herd. Selecting the new breeding lines and implementing a program. Lots to do and shorter days to get it done.

Fall also brings our much awaited field trip to California's Apple Hill. Apple Hill is a farming community encompassing Camino and Placerville, Ca. There are approximately 50 growers in apple hill that specializes in agrotourism. From you pick orchards to vineyards to petting zoo's there really is something for everyone.



I think it is hysterical that although we live on a farm and have a built in petting zoo, my kids look so forward to this trip. We drive the roads between farms commenting on structures, layouts and what we could dos. Even the 3 year old gets into it.

This year I scheduled the kids a candy making class at one of our favorite farms and the kids were thrilled. The not so thrilling part was that Apple Hill had no apples, there was a late frost. My kids took to calling it appleless hill as the day went on. We refused to be let down and chose to pick our pumpkins out instead. We also pet some animals, talked shop wit a few farmers and toured our old favorite farms. It was a great day despite the appleless situation.



We did notice that a lot of the farms were for sale, even some of the oldest and best. It was a sad thing to see. A mix of age, economy, taxes, regulations and weather have been too much for these small farmers to bare. I am hopefull like minded families will come in and continue the tradition.

Heritage Breeds

When Rob and I started dreaming of the farm we did a lot of research and reading. We decided our homestead would focus on heritage livestock. What is heritage livestock you ask? Well the American Livestock Conservancy defines heritage livestock as breeds that are threatened. Due to changes in modern agriculture practice, modern food production now favors the use of a few highly specialized breeds selected for the ability to produce lots of milk or eggs, gain weight quickly, or yield meat within confinement. Many traditional livestock breeds have lost popularity and are threatened with extinction. These heritage breeds are an important part of the American agricultural inheritance. Not only do they remind us of our past, they are also an important resource for our future.

For a smaller farm like ours they are especially fitting because heritage animals have traits that make them particularly well-adapted to local environment. Heritage breeds are generally better adapted to withstand disease, parasites and harsh environmental conditions, their bodies are also suited to living on pasture.

The benefits of heritage breeds are many, but the drawback is the expense and difficulty of obtaining breeding stock. Due to the fact the animals are endangered finding a suitable breeding pair can take years and the animals are usually located across country.

We have been lucky to find Jacob Sheep locally and also find our Myotonic Goats in California. Heritage cows and pigs are still not in our reach but we have added a few "practice" animals to our little farm. This way we can work out the kinks before we have the countries livestock genetic pool in our hands. Bacon and Sausage, the pigs, were slaughtered already. And we have just recently picked up some cattle at auction and through our friends at the feed store. Let the practice begin....

A horse is a horse

A few weeks after moving to Fargo Farms, Rob informed me he did not feel like a "real" cowboy because he did not have a horse. I am not a huge fan of horses and wasn't all that enthusiastic about adding an animal into the rotation that brought no value, an was quite expensive to maintain. Well goodness sakes alive we couldn't have a horseless cowboy, so the search began.



JJ came to the farm from a rescue group. He was starved and neglected and about 400 pounds underweight. JJ is also an older horse so he had few prospects. We figured he would be a good fit here with a bunch of kids to love him and very light work load consisting of riding Rob around to check pastures and irrigation.



JJ was a sweetie for a month or two, until he had gained enough weight to start feeling like himself again. Every day he seemed to get feistier. Rob was insistent that he and JJ would work it out. They worked it out all right, take a look at JJ's idea of working it out.




Rob was taking JJ on a little ride, when JJ freaked out. JJ started running and Rob's cowboy hat flew off. Well anyone who knows anything about being a cowboy knows it is a cardinal sin to separate a cowboy and his hat. Rob had no choice but to stop and dismount to retrieve his hat. When Rob tried to get back in his saddle, JJ saw his opening. JJ started to sprint and buck with Rob not quite back in the saddle again. Rob held on as long as he could but he finally had to give up and let go. He was thrown about 15 feet from the look of the wreckage. I had just gotten home and the phone was ringing. Our neighbor had found a semi-conscious Rob laying in the horse trail and called me to come help. I sprinted the length of our 20 acres to find Rob in worsening condition. We called 911 and waited for the paramedics. Long story short (well kinda) Rob had broken his 1st rib, a very hard rib to break and a very dangerous one considering it runs next to an artery and often severs it when it breaks. He also broke his transverse process on his L4 and L5 vertebrae. Along with a contusion on his hip so deep they saw it on cat scan and a bunch of gnarly road rash his injuries added up to a lot of pain and a long road to recovery.

I tried to convince him that the glue factory was a good option for JJ at that point, but once he commits, it is forever!

At least I get a bit of revenge now and then