Our first winter....

You never really think about how important water is till your watered quits working and you have to carry buckets from the house all winter to water all the animals. Lesson learned!! During the winter we lost 2 more chickens one broke her legs and one just walked away. So now 12 chickens have become 2, maybe not a real strength of ours time will tell. Our next casualty came in February with the death of one of our ewes at the time there didn’t seem to be any reason for this.

Bring on the spring...

So now we know that a very small 5 month old ram is big enough to breed!!! March and we have a set of twins!! An adorable surprise. This is followed by losing another ewe however this is another learning moment and we now know that the other one that died also died in childbirth. Turns out that if your ewe suddenly wants to cuddle with you she is in distress. On the bright side we get another set of twins and a single. No katahdin babies though only Blackbelly. Our next addition was 2 pigs Wilbur and Matilda, these are not Charlottes web pigs these are 600lbs each a nice little breeding pair lol. Turns out Roland isn’t really fond of huge pigs either and in his defence they really are intimidating and man can they run !! It’s now time for the goats to exit James we sell for breeding and Jake we trade to my son Jon and his girlfriend Amber to breed their girls as they have decided to raise goats. We took a baby girl goat in trade. She is very cute and stays in the fence, she does have a naughty streak though and plays with anything she can find.
This year we are on the ball and have the garden in on May 1. This seemed to help the weeds grow better and the whole season turned into a struggle with a good quarter of it being lost to weeds. Not using any pesticides definitely makes it more of a challenge. We did still manage to get potatoes and onions in the cold room and beans, carrots and peas in the freezer so a improvement over last year.

This years improvements included re roofing the sheep barn , which we figured would take a couple day and turned into a week as while it’s shorter than the barn it’s almost the same size. With that task completed we are now confident that the sheep will be fully protected this winter even if they do lamb early.
Next to join our little farm is our two boys Bubba and Pp two bottle baby jersey bulls. Love these boys, first day and PP won’t eat time to force feed him. By the next day he is first guy to the bottle happy day.
This bring us to our next addition which involves buying 100 chickens and converting the old modular home on our property into a chicken coop. While I did make the purchase I’m not taking the blame, as a few weeks before this Amber had bought 100 chickens for $1 apiece and Roland had said “ that’s a great deal I would buy 100 chickens at that price “ so we did. The chickens were moulting thus the price, so we lost a few from stress and were only getting a dozen eggs or so a day. We put a few in the freezer and had some very happy cats.
So January comes along and I get a payout at work. So now officially unemployed and surgery booked for February 1, so what’s the logical thing to do....buy more sheep of course. So we buy another 15 Blackbelly ewes and two rams. Turns out that two of the ewes were bred early and already have babies at their side. Twin boys and a single. Sunday February 4 Roland comes into the house carrying one of the twins, he found it abandoned laying in the snow. So now we begin trying to nurse our little guy back to health. He appeared to have a broken foot, Thursday we realized it was actually frost bite and have now begun antibiotics and soaking it. Saturday he is too weak to walk not sure how this is going to turn out. So it’s Sunday morning now and it turns out I read the mixing instructions wrong on the milk replacer and have accidentally been starving the lamb. We got that straightened out now so hopefully he will recover. Monday morning he developed diarrhea and gave up just after one. I know it’s part of life but it’s still hard every time you lose one.
Meanwhile we also have the incubator going in the house regular barn yard in here lol. 
So a new chapter begins we met with a farm accounting firm and can now hopefully figure out how to move forward and make farming a career.

 

February 16 the eggs are hatching. 4 new chicks !!! Obviously need to improve our system to get a higher hatch rate. Our thinking is that the eggs got to warm on the counter waiting to go in so we started adding eggs as these ones were hatching. So now we have eggs with different due dates but figure a 3-4 day spread might work out okay. We built a holding pen for them out of a cardboard box and old oven racks as a roof to hold the heat light. First thing that happens is a chick climbs out the handle hole lol so we block them up. It’s now the 21st and there is a chick standing on the kitchen table. Turns out they are now big enough and smart enough to climb out through the grate. So their voyage to the nursery in the coop begins!! Little water lover didn’t make it in the coop.

 

Feb 22. Two sets of twins born today, moment of panic before we found the second mom!! Sunday the 25 gained 4 more babies, can’t tell yet if they are singles or twins they are everywhere lol. Monday Katahdin triples!!!! So cute kind of look like gremlins lol. Wednesday afternoon watching a Blackbelly delivering her twins!! Currently have 15 babies a couple appear to be singles, but one of the Blackbellys seems to have triplets and I don’t think she really does just keeps picking up a extra the little guys are always wandering away from their moms!!

 

March 7 accidentally walked up on one of the Blackbelly ewes lambing, she wasn’t happy I backed off pretty quick will have to go out later and see if it was one or two.

 

It’s the 14th we have 20 some babies and have managed to tag 9 of them lol. Counting them is a lot like counting mosquitoes!!!!!  Big momma Katahdin is down and can’t get up she is still very pregnant and I really don’t know what to do. I have to go to Red Deer tomorrow for my check up so maybe I will stop at the vet and see if I can get her some electrolytes and the stuff to induce her.  We lost big momma and her twins first one seemed to big to get out and they died before we could get them out. Another lesson learned. On an up note we do have over 30 healthy babies running around!!

 

March 24 Minnie is born premature her twin didn’t make it but we brought her in the house and she is eating well. A whopping 1kg !!! Doubled her weight in 2 days might be part pig lol.

 

March 28 the lambs are playing king of the hill on Jesse (Dusty’s horse) while he is laying down. Surprised he allowed it but really cute one baby decided to lay down and have a nap on him.

This is the longest winter in a long time March 30 we have a ton of snow and more coming and the temperature is going to-21 tonight and tomorrow night!!!

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At this rate we will be planting the garden in June.

May 3 brought home 2 8 week old girl bunnies California New Zealand crosses !! Not sure how happy Roland will be about it lol. Got dirt added to the garden and most of it tilled   Cleaning the old hay up In the field.

 

May 9 Princess had twins!!! May 23 p2 had a single.

 

June 26 12 gave birth to a single. July 19 twins born

 

August 1 teenage girl had baby chicks !!!august 20 chicks start to hatch in incubator.

 

Sept 30 first lamb in the freezer !!!

 

Oct 5 new single lamb born baby girl  

 

Oct 16 twins

 

December 10 Ivory gave birth to single girl Jersey. Dec 17 single girl born.

 

December 29 Zac came out and bought and butchered his first lamb black kathadine and we butchered 18 month old Blackbelly.

 

December 30 our first prolapse baby was dead before we got there Moved her princess big black momma and pregnant ewe with broken foot all into the barn.

 

December 31 set of twins and a single born this morning

 

Jan 1 lost one of the twins and gained 2 singles. Had to call the vet out as Princess is full of pig food and unable to poop.

 

Jan 2 a single born. Princess is pooping but not quite right yet.

 

Jan 3 broken foot had twins in the barn. Princess is now back to her old self.

 

Jan 4 two new lambs in the field. One doesn’t have a mom so here we go again with a little one in the house!!!

 

Jan 6 single in the field

 

Jan 9 found peanut in the field thought she was dead but me and Dakota managed to bring her back.

 

Jan 17 white Kathadin had twins black girl and white boy.  Too cold out so had to move them to the barn. Black girl has something wrong with hind legs can’t see anything though her tail and hind legs were really cold when we took her in.

 

Jan 19 moved a Blackbelly with her twins to the barn little ones weren’t doing very good.

 

Jan 20 Princess surprised us with her twins very cute little girls. Sold our two little bottle babies Nugget and Peanut hope they both do well in their new home.

 

Jan 22 morning chores Bambi is trying to give birth nose and toes showing lol hope it goes well will go check on her in half hour not sure I’m going to be able to help her by myself.
Currently have about 26 babies on the ground thought we were done before Bambi decided to give it a go.
Bambi gave birth to a healthy single “Blaze “ unassisted!!!
Currently have 97 sheep total decided to count even though first rule of sheep club is never admit how many you have. Lost 3 babies due to cold weather.

 

Jan 27/19 today we butchered our mean rooster his talon was 2 inches long!!! Going to put it on a string for Nic as it made him bleed once lol.

 

Feb 13 ewe decided -22 is a good time to have her twins got them moved into the barn.

 

Feb 25 princesses very cute little girl passed away. And it’s sister passed as well not sure what happened maybe squished.

 

Well it’s March now and warming up moved everyone except the rabbits back outside opened the chicken run.

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March 22 12 had twins a jersey and a black.

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April 8 miss half ear gave birth to a single female.

 

April 10 11 had twins multicolour girl and a Blackbelly.

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