Archive for Farm Stuff

Babydoll Sheep

FFR Babydoll sheep

Our farm is going to grow yet again! I’m kind of nervous thinking about it but excited at the same time. When we bought the wool dryer balls from the sheep farmer we also put down a deposit on a breeding pair of sheep for our oldest son! We will get these lambs in the spring so there’s lots of time. It’s just fencing, shelter etc. We do not want to put much money into permanent infrastructure like stalls in the barn because we cannot take it with us. We will probably do temporary housing outside. I know the sheep farm uses calf huts, but I think those can be pricey so we’ll do something like our little hoop house over our raised bed.

The sheep in the photo above are from the sheep farm but owned by our neighbor. When I went there with my friend to look at their Dutch Belted cow, I snapped a photo of the Babydoll sheep. Our neighbor knows the sheep farmers, which is what prompted me to get in touch with them, remembering I had their business card from the Green Expo. I had inquired earlier in the year but never got around to calling them back because we were not at a place of being ready for more animals with all our delays in fencing and waiting for pasture to grow. But our son has been asking so we took the leap of faith and put a deposit down knowing we have to plan ahead for things like this, especially if we want unrelated lambs to breed. Thankfully, we do not have to worry about shearing wool until spring of 2015 and the ewe won’t be bred until she is a year or two old.

Our son’s sheep will be registered Babydoll sheep. He has his names picked out already – Atlas for the ram and Juno for the ewe. It’s always interesting to see what names they come up with. I questioned him gently making sure those were names he wanted before I sent them to the breeder. I just wanted him to be sure. I also asked him if he was going to be able to sell his lambs. He said yes, but we’ll see.

Babydoll sheep are a recovering sheep breed on the Livestock Conservancy priority list. We chose them because they are smaller, plus they are cute!


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Wool Dryer Balls – Dryer Sheet Alternative

FFR Wool Dryer Balls

About a month ago my 14 year old daughter “B” and I went to a Green Expo to promote our farm. We collected a few business cards, one of which was a local sheep farmer. I finally got around to visiting their website and discovered they sold wool dryer balls. These wool dryer balls are handmade by M.

When my older girls were little I had to stop using dryer sheets because a couple of them broke out with rashes. I never liked the expense of liquid fabric softener so we’ve basically gone without. I have used a rag with vinegar on it to get rid of static cling.

That’s why I was excited to try the wool dryer balls come in as an alternative. We have been using them since the weekend and they are working. We do not seem to have to turn the dryer on for a second cycle on our larger loads so it is doing what I hoped they’d do in reducing dryer time by soaking up extra wetness. No one has said anything about static cling yet so I am hoping that will be rectified as well.

I think I’ll get my mom a set of dryer balls the next time she comes to visit.

Do you have any dryer sheet remedies?


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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving 7

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! We are chillin’ at home as a family. We cooked our turkey overnight now we are in the throws of washing potatoes, making pie dough and preparing veggies. Robert is carving the turkey (which was homegrown and is so yummy!), I’m making cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls and the girls divided up the rest of the work among them and the younger ones.

Things I am thankful for this year are:

  1. Family – near and far – miss those of you in Canada!
  2. The ability to work from home and be here for our children.
  3. God’s provision – financially during this time of unemployment for my husband, leading us to the animals we have (I think we have awesome animals!), giving us solutions to life’s problems
  4. Living our dream. Living in the country, growing our own food, giving our children the privilege of raising animals. I was telling someone this week our children spend more time with our animals than with toys most days.
  5. Our health. So very grateful we are all healthy.
  6. Being nearly a week ahead in blog posts, thanks to my contributing writers’ help! ;)
  7. Time with Friends. I went out with a friend yesterday to look at a Dutch Belted cow for a friend of hers at my neighbor’s (a new friend) and we had such a fun time with stimulating farm conversation! ;) 4 hours worth! Grateful for my farm friends especially this year because they “get” us and what we are trying to do. They also lend a hand and are there for us. Makes me feel like we are finally a part of a community and it’s been a long time since I felt that way, since leaving my native Nova Scotia.

Wishing you a very grateful 2013 Thanksgiving!


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Silly Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

FFR Kittens climbing wall_

In light of Saturday’s Top Five Laughs post, thought I’d share this photo of Freckles at the beginning of her climb and Selene as she looks on because I think they look adorable!

Today the kittens were out in the snow for the first time and they batted at it! Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of it.

The kittens climbing all over the garage and my husband says they think it’s their own jungle gym and I tend to agree.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday is almost….wordless!


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Waiting Again….Miss Moo

Last Monday we had Miss Moo AI’d (artificially inseminated) again. We are hoping it sticks this time. Our vet told us if we see any signs of heat to call him to come back not rather than wait the 60 days, so we’ll do that. “B” is usually pretty good at telling when Miss Moo is in heat, thankfully.

FFR Miss Moo 10-18-2013

For example, last weekend we had those huge storms with about 70 tornadoes being reported across Illinois. On Sunday, Robert had taken the four older ones to the Chicago Field Museum for the day. That left me with four children 10 an under. Robert had left our son in charge of chickens but we also had to get Blaze in because he does not like to be out in the elements. Remember he’s old. However, when I called Robert to get him to ask about “B” about Miss Moo, “B” told me she’d be fine. And she was. She just stood there chewing her cud in the wind and rain, not bothered at all. However, she did run around a bit kicking up her heals. Something she does when she’s in heat. There were other signs “B” said Miss Moo was exhibiting before they all left for the day too.

So we are anxiously waiting again to see if Miss Moo will be with calf. That means a 2014 late summer or early fall calf. As long as she calves before winter, I’ll be happy.

As a side note, our horse and cow have bonded. It’s been so sweet to watch Blaze follow Miss Moo in the pasture or hear the children tell me one or the other won’t go out or come in without the other one.


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Sick Chickens – Wordless Wednesday

This summer our egg business really took off. We could not keep up with the demand for our eggs, even at $5 and $6 a dozen. We allow our poultry to free range as well as feed them certified organic feed making our eggs a “premium” product. To accommodate the growth in our egg business we bought a couple of batches of 6 month old pullets from two other farms. Bad choice. We knew the risks but wanted our egg business to keep growing and not drop off. Our intentions were good but the result was fatal to our egg business, as well as our entire flock of poultry.

LoonyAcres Broilers 09072013

Our laying flock was healthy. There was nothing wrong with them. Then we started to notice sick chickens. The ones that were sick stopped laying. They showed signs of being lethargic, sleeping a lot, coughing, wheezing and like they had a cold in the eye. The pullets we bought obviously brought an illness to our healthy flock because this illness showed up within two weeks of bringing home the second flock of pullets. :( We were very concerned for the safety of our customers, our broilers and our turkeys. No vets in the area deal with chickens so we had to go to a university veterinary lab. The closest one to us is the University of Wisconsin. Two hours away – one way. We took the vets two live birds to help them make a diagnosis. Live birds allowed for fresh tissue analysis and a more accurate diagnosis. My husband made the trip on a Friday in September.

Within a few days we had our answer. Upper respiratory infection. Sometimes fatal, especially to broilers who have a smaller trachea (or esophagus) than laying hens. Good news? This infection is not harmful to humans. The eggs and meat could still be sold. Bad news? Even when the birds recover from the infection, they remain carriers of the infection and can spread it to any new birds we brought onto our farm. Results? We have to cull (kill) our whole flock of laying hens and turkeys. Even our breeding turkeys. Our turkeys never exhibited any signs of the infection but since they were exposed, they are carriers too.

LoonyAcres Turkeys 082013_

We had sick chickens for about a month. The infection went through our flock quickly and usually lasted a few days. It was basically a “chicken cold”. Who would have thought, right? There was nothing we could do for them….other than separate the ones who were getting picked on. The vet told about an antibiotic but didn’t actually recommend it since the birds were now carriers.

This “chicken cold” has been devastating. Our egg business was to the point of buying all the feed for our animals, except our horse, dog and cats. We are hoping all our customers come back in the spring.

Our plan? We plan to start fresh with baby chicks in December and have eggs available in the spring.

We will buy more turkeys in the spring and choose some to keep for breeding purposes.

We will never, ever buy chickens from unknown farms again. And may this be a lesson for anyone considering purchasing chickens from another farm to add to your current flock…DON’T.


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Kittens, Kittens and More Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

Ok all you cat and kitty lovers….I couldn’t resist posting an all kitty post after the photo shoot we did for the SHEBA post yesterday. I just kept snapping and snapping hoping to get some good, non-blurry photos of them! They are at such an adorable age. I don’t get to observe them like the children do but I love it when the children come tell me stories of all the antics and things they are up to. Like tonight, my son came to tell me that Badger is sleeping inside one of my husband’s old ratty running shoes! Why wasn’t the old ratty shoe tossed when he got his new ones? Guess they were meant to be here for the kittens! Too bad the garage is so dark or else I would have taken a photo of the kitty in the shoe!

FFR Freckles washing herself
Freckles washing herself.

FFR Sweet Kittens 110513
Sweet little kittens.

FFR Sev and Badger 110513
Severus is our Tom cat and you can see the resemblance between him and Badger, eh? Oh and Sevy is our only male cat now since all his kittens appear to be females!

FFR Badger with tongue out_
Badger licking her lips.

FFR Freckles 110513_
Freckles sitting pretty.

FFR Badger 110513_
Badger sitting pretty too.

FFR Selene 110513_
Selene sitting pretty.

Amazing that I got a shot of each one of them sitting so nicely. Full bellies helped! So remember that as a photography tip! These are their six week old photos.


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Keeping Your Cat Healthy – SHEBA

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Do you have a cat? We have six. We started with two and now have six! Needless to say we go through a lot of cat food! A huge part in keeping your cat healthy is the diet you feed them. We feed our cats a mostly raw diet of fresh Guernsey milk from Miss Moo, chicken, chicken livers and giblets. They will be getting treated with turkey trimmings on Thanksgiving! With winter weather around the corner we want them to have enough to eat so they can maintain proper body temperature to stay warm; that’s why we usually supplement their diet with cat food.

I don’t think we’ve ever fed our cats canned cat food before, until now. We usually buy dry cat food. This time we bought them SHEBA cat food. They LOVED it and gobbled up their SHEBA entrees. You can see from the photos how much they enjoyed their SHEBA meal!

Selene eating SHEBA Cat food by herself#shop_

Selene wouldn’t eat until we served her own portion by herself! Look at her ears…protective of her food…though she did allow her mama to join her. See the video here on Instagram.

Freckles saying yummy SHEBA BRAND #shop_
Freckles is saying yummy SHEBA!

Princess says yummy SHEBA BRAND #shop_
Princess says yummy with her tongue and Badger thought the meal was so good she had to sit on the plate with her SHEBA entree!

Sev waiting for more SHEBA Cat Food #shop_
Severus cleaned his plate and is patiently waiting for more.

Pumkin eating SHEBA cat food #shop_
Pumpkin barely breathes as she devours her portion of SHEBA cat food!

Walmart has a roll-back price on SHEBA right now – just $0.50! Plus SHEBA has a Buy 6, Get 1 FREE coupon on their website: http://www.sheba.com/home

SHEBA BRAND Walmart #shop #cbias

Our cats are barn cats, but not in the traditional sense because they are very people-fied and are our pets, though they do serve a purpose in keeping the rodent population down on the 16 acres of land where we live. Our landlords do not want us keeping any pets in the home we are renting.

FFR Playful Kittens after eating SHEBA BRAND #shop_
After their bellies were full, the kittens were in a very playful mood!

When our female cat, Princess, had kittens over six weeks ago we moved her and her babies to the garage for safety mainly but we also knew they would be extra warm in the garage because our dryer vent releases into the garage. We wanted Princess to feel safe and not be threatened by anything in the barn or by the other cats. This was how we kept Princess and her kittens healthy for the past six weeks. We just started letting her take the kittens outside. She gave a hint by having them all sit at the garage door with begging little faces!

Another part of keeping our cat healthy is worming them. We worm them on a regular basis to keep them free of parasites.

Regular vet visits and vaccinations all play a part in keeping your cat healthy too. Check with your vet on their recommendations. Each vet will be different.


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Fall Clean Up

Now that our vegetable CSA is over and summer has come to an end. It’s time for fall clean up. I don’t know about your fall clean up list, but ours seems to keep growing and I fear we will not get everything done on it.

FFR Red Maple_

Here’s what on it so far and there’s only a little over a month left of fall:

1. Plant 15 lbs of garlic.

2. Clean up garden beds.

3. Till.

4. General pick up of garbage, etc.

5. Go to a local organic berry farm to dig up asparagus crowns they are giving away so we can add to our own little patch.

6. We have a 1/4 acre that we have to weed because we allowed it to become a patch of tall overgrown ugliness. Our intention was to plant root crops there but we never got to it. Now it’s a project and a half no one wants to touch. :(

7. Clean out chicken coops.

8. Store unused coops for winter.

LoonyAcres Mini Greenhouse 2

9. Possibly make one more small hoop house to grow veggies in over the winter.

10. Barn clean up. This will be ongoing as it was originally a mess when we started renting it in February.

11. Move Miss Moo to new pasture. This is an ongoing task.

Plus, whatever other projects we decide we need to accomplish….and this is just outside projects. Don’t even get me started on what needs to be done INside. Sigh.

So tell me, do you have a lot of fall clean up to do?


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Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

This week’s funnies from the Gould children are as follows. If you want to read more laughs from other families, visit The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs and join the fun!

5. This week our three year old son, the youngest, put on a bra and said, “Me have boobies, me have boobies.” (Thanks to a certain someone for teaching him a slang version of breasts! ;0 ) Sorry no photo.

4. Our nearly 30 year old horse coming up on the patio for his grain. Our daughter was carrying the grain and Blaze followed her right up to the house when she came to tell me something at the patio doors. I only managed to get a photo of them leaving the back yard!

Blaze and O 110213_

3. I told our three year old to take a wipe and wipe his face and he wiped MY face!

2. Miss Moo was in heat this week and stalked our oldest son by running around after him and mooing loudly! She must have smelled the testosterone! lol! Needless to say our son was freaked out and not at all amused.

1. Our three kittens think they are brave stalkers and jump on their mama! More cute than funny, unless you are watching them!

One last one….my 14 year old daughter and I went to an exhibition to promote our farm. We were selling milk soap and had free samples sitting out for people to help themselves to. One of the very first people picked a sample up and promptly went to eat it because they thought it was candy or fudge!! The person joked with us on and off throughout the day about it and we all laughed. ;)


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