This message is to my neice Catherine

Catherine, I can't wait till you're a teenager and can come stay with me.

My neice left me a message that her dad said she could come here when she was a teenager. She went on to detail what kind of work she would like to do...even though most of it involved grooming a horse, maybe we'll have one by the time she's a teenager. She ended the message with "I really like you". I've listened to it everyday since I've got it. SO refreshing......
In the meantime, another neice will be visiting this weekend. Hope to have some pics of Briana next week. we're getting our new flock on saturday night....so we'll be chicken rich....or chicken poor...both are appropriate.

Pastured Broilers

Besides laying hens, the thing ward and I are interested in doing is pastured broilers. Now, we've read all the books....looked at all the pictures and even processed a few times with some other farms. But we're on the road to our own now. The first test batch of cornish rock cross birds are 4 weeks old today. They went out of the brooder last week and onto the pasture. they are contained in a pen ward has built that is moveable. We are moving every couple of days right now, but I imagine when they get a little bigger every day move will be necessary. We have 25 test ones in this pen. We've had loads of people stop and ask what it was. Ward keeps saying I made him move out of the house and he's living in the pasture. HA! they should be ready for the freezer in a few weeks.

A New Flock

When I was still living in Seattle and dreaming of my farm life here, I would go on eatwild.com and look at the farms in the Austin area that were practicing techniques and ways of raising food that I had only read about. One of them was Jules and Sue from Shades of Green. Like all the farms, I read their blogs from beginning to end, looked at their pictures and tried to imagine what their farms were like.

We recently made a deal with Jules and Sue to buy their laying flock. The Shades of Green Farm is certified organic and we currently practice and feed organic. We are so excited to get this flock of birds, and most of all, we are so lucky to meet Jules and Sue.

We are also in the process of filling out paperwork for organic cert. I am overwhelmed by the mounds of papers that need to be filled out, and have to say....I am further behind in the process than I want to be. But I'll continue on!

Will keep you updated on the move next week. Stay tuned.....

The farm comes to life.....

I remember watching Charlotte's Web when I was a kid, and you know the part where it's spring and everything is being born and coming back to life? that's how it feels here too..... We officially have all three calves on the ground, and they are all bull calves. I have the longhorn cross and one of the zebu and their calves for sale. Also, our donkey went out one day and didn't come back to the pen at night. Alas, a few days later, we spotted her walking with a baby donkey behind! What a surprise! We have a new Pyrennes puppy that we hope someday will be extra protection for our flocks. We finally got 3.5 inches of blessed rain and hoping the pasture can take off and keep the cattle fed! What a relief not to have to water the garden every single day. It seems to have flourished with the rainfall. Isn't it amazing how they love the rain? Our pond is about twice as full. Ward has spent several days hunting snakes down there. Cottonmouths! ICK!

New spring stuff

Well, all the cattle have arrived. We officially have 1 mini hereford bull named Gunslinger, 2 mini hereford cows, 2 zebus....one pregnant and one with bull calf at side, one mini longhorn with bull calf at side and one F1 steer. We had the pasture sprayed with a compost tea this past Monday...but unless it rains soon, it may be like spitting in the wind. We also got 25 broiler chicks on Thursday. They will stay in the brooder only 3 weeks before taking their place in the moveable pen that will be in the pasture. We are getting ready to section off the pasture using electric fencing to make small paddocks for the cattle to rotate. We may have a few too many cattle on the land right now, but the steer will be heading to the processor soon, and I plan to sell the F1 bull calf. When ward and I went out to do chores this morning, we stumbled upon Dewberries ripe on the vine. We picked all we could find and ate them with cereal for breakfast. Yummy! Ward did finish the last laying chicken coop for me, officially named the "mini-cooper". He does an excellent job on these coops...i think he should build them to sell.

Some of the cows are home

5 of the cattle arrived today. The bull, Gunslinger and his posse of 2 hereford cows, 1 Zebu cow and an F1 steer are walking the perimeter. The other Zebu cow who just had her baby yesterday and the Longhorn with the two week old baby are still in Bryan waiting till they get a little older. We could just sit out and watch them all day. This work stuff really gets in the way.

I was collecting eggs yesterday and I heard a baby bird chirping sound. I looked down a roll of shingles ward had leaned against the fence and there were 7 mouths open! I got a flashlight to look better and saw they were really young, no feathers at all. I remembered standing there not too long ago and having a bird land right on the fence by me. Of course, I thought I was like a disney character that the birds wanted to be friends with. I guess now I know I was standing VERY close to her nest and she was probably nervous.

The Cows are coming home......

Here's a few pictures of our new cattle. Yesterday we purchased a minature hereford bull, two minature hereford cows, two Zebu (minature brahman) that are pregnant, 1 minature longhorn with a 2 week old calf at side and an F1 steer (his parents are the zebu and hereford bull). We didn't get a picture of the bull when we were out there. I think we were awestruck at him. He weighs about 1000 pounds. He is beautiful. He was kicking dirt up on himself, so he looked like he was going to charge. The guy is going to start delivering a few at a time probably starting next week when he gets back into town. We are going to let the zebu's deliver first and wait a few weeks before we transport them and their calves. We have a lady coming out today to look at our pasture. We are hoping to have it sprayed with compost tea. Trying to live without chemicals.....