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Miss Moo is…..

Posted by html404 on October 31, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Home, Pet Food, Uncategorized

Miss Moo is….not expecting a calf. Sniff. Sniff.

On Monday our vet came out to check to see if Miss Moo bred, but unfortunately the August AI (artificial insemination) did not take. We were disappointed but we are trying again. This time the vet gave Miss Moo a shot to bring on her heat cycle, which should occur any day now. Once we see signs of her heat we will call the vet and he will come out and AI her again and give her another shot, if I am understanding correctly. All of this is new to us so forgive me if I get a few things mixed up! Trying to keep things straight but somehow think it may take another time or two of going through AI before it sticks in this brain of mine.

Now….here’s to hoping for a 2014 fall calf.

The vet was impressed with how much weight Miss Moo had put on since late August – yay for the new pasture and the extra grain portions! We really couldn’t take the credit…but we are very, very happy that he noticed the difference. He said she was in “working condition” and could probably still use another 150-200 lbs, so we will keep her grain portion the same and feed her our hay, which is better quality than the stuff we previously got. She was hardly gaining anything on the old hay but our hay is “gold” ;). Seriously, Miss Moo doesn’t even want to eat the old stuff anymore, that’s saying a lot for a cow because cows usually are not so picky. And she really does prefer our hay.

Unfortunately, our second cutting just got cut last week and was baled on Monday. The weather conditions were not the best so our hay did not dry as it should have, but it’s ok for cows. Our horse does not eat hay due to his teeth. Older horses like him (29+ years) often have poor teeth, if any at all. That’s why we feed him mush. More about older horses in a future post though!

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Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on October 23, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Home, Kids Stuff, Uncategorized

We had three little kittens born four weeks ago this past Sunday to our mama cat, Princess Moonstone (Princess or Prinny). At first they look like little rats, but they are adorable now and worthy of a blog spot. Ha ha! They are so hard to photograph because they wiggle so much! For the photos below I had to tuck them in my arm and have the girls take the photos. When I tried taking the photos with the girls holding them, the girls let the kittens crawl up their arm, their shirt and we were not getting anything but laughing (and frustration) done.

Happy Month Old Birthday! (taken on Sunday, October 20)

From left to right the children have named them: Selene, Sir Hiss (actually should be Lady Hiss, doesn’t she look like a badger?) and Tabby or Freckles.

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Farming is Hazardous

Posted by html404 on September 18, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Money & Finances, Safety

This is a featured post.

I have a farmer friend who gets after me each time she comes to our farm. You see, I tend to wear crocs around the farm. Yep, even around our hooved animals who weigh 1200-1500 lbs. Not ideal to say the least but my feet really like to breathe in the summer months and rubber boots or steel toed boots just haven’t seemed necessary or appealing to wear. And no, that’s not my fashion sense speaking, it’s my comfort level doing the talking.

When my friend was here to help with fencing over a month ago a t-post nearly fell on my foot. Not a good thing. A couple of years ago while working on another farm I had a t-post go through the bottom of my croc giving me a pretty good cut all because I tried to put the t-post into the ground with my foot, seriously of all things to do, but I did it as an automatic reaction. Farming is hazardous if you are not careful. A lot can go wrong on a farm. Thankfully we do not own any heavy equipment yet, but the large animals pose a risk because you never know what they can or will do. It’s not like we have medical insurance or life insurance that covers accidents, for that matter. We don’t even have a retirement fund come to think of it. It’s not like we view these things as unimportant, we just haven’t had the budget for them in the past five years, not with two lay offs under our belt. However, it is a goal of ours to get these things in place as soon as our income increases to the point of making it possible.

We do have farm insurance, which is helpful and provides some kind of coverage. Nevertheless, it’s a tad bit worrisome at times thinking of all the things that can go wrong when we lack other insurance coverage or funds to cover extra expenses that could occur.

Do you have life insurance? What about medical insurance in light of Obamacare? Are you preparing for retirement?

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Why is Organic Dairy So Important? #FightPesticides

Posted by html404 on September 17, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Home, Organic, Safety, Uncategorized

This post is part of my application to become a Stoneyfield ambassador and I will receive Stoneyfield coupons for my participation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Why is Organic Dairy So Important?

I know our family knows why organic dairy is so important but thought I’d share with you our reasons for wanting to eat and drink organic dairy to the point of owning our own cow. As you know, organic anything can be expensive, especially when buying for ten people. A huge reason for our buying a cow is so we could provide fresh milk for our family (and animals because we do share!). You also know from our Mariano’s shop, organic milk is around $7.99 per gallon at Whole Foods and Mariano’s. However, our reason for feeding her organic feed and hay is to be free of harmful pesticides (and GMOs – Genetically Modified Organisms) often used on crops. Now that we have our own pasture and hay, we know without a doubt our milk is organic, free of harmful GMOs. We have been supplementing Miss Moo with certified organic feed because when we brought her home she was underweight and want to fatten her up so she’s a good weight for her age and stage of lactation. We also know exactly what Miss Moo is fed, how she how the milk is handled and how she is cared for. We like knowing where our food comes from, and for our large family that means we are raising our own at this stage of our lives.

Don’t just take my word for it. Research it for yourself.

Resources:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/06/07/milk-101-whole-raw-organic-low-fat-etc/

http://www.utne.com/Environment/organic-milk-USDA-amendment.aspx#axzz2f5HSUr2e

http://www.realmilk.com/

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Homing Pigeon – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on September 11, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

A couple weeks ago we had a visitor land on our car. It was a homing pigeon. It has a tag on his leg that one of my daughters looked up and determined it was a racing pigeon from Nebraska. It is very friendly and allows the children to handle it. It has taken up residence with our broilers, which concerns me because it is eating 18% grower feed. What if it gains so much weight it cannot fly? Is that even possible? If it’s too heavy, how will it fly back home to its owner? And why has it decided to “vacation” here? Lots of questions. The children are loving “their” new pet though.

What is a Homing Pigeon?

When I googled homing pigeon images not many of them were the color of “ours”.

According to HomingPigeon.com a homing pigeon is:

Homing Pigeon – Aves Columbiformes Columbidae Columba Livia

Sixteen ounces of muscle and feather, at times on the wing for twelve hours, flying at sustained speeds of 30 to 60 miles per hour.
Why?
To return home where a special relationship exists between man and bird.

Wikipedia states the sport of homing pigeons was established 3000 years ago. The American Racing Pigeon Union says that in the late 1800’s homing pigeons were imported from Europe. More information about American racing pigeons can be found on www.pigeon.org

I don’t claim to be a homing pigeon expert but I hope that wets your appetite to discover more about these charming birds.

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Our Farm at Sunset – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on September 4, 2013
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Home, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

This is a photo of our farm at sunset when we got the hay field cut. The hay is all baled and stored except for the few bales that got rained on. We got pretty close to 600 bales of hay for our first cutting and that was just our share. We split it 50-50 with the farmer who cut, raked and baled it for us. No exchange of money, which we liked. Some hay guys will charge you a certain amount on top of each bale, even if they are getting 50 percent of the bales.

It was very hard to find someone to do our hay. Someone who said what they meant and meant what they said. Mr. L. came out to our farm to look at the hay field the same day we called him. He cared if the hay got wet or not, though we didn’t miss the rain altogether due to the amount of time it took for the hay to dry with the thicker weeds. We had a few hay guys give us the run around, didn’t come out when they said they would etc. We are very thankful to Mr. L. for doing our hay for us.

It was a lot of work to get the hay unloaded and into the barn. Our children now say they hate hay! lol! We kept asking them what are you going to do if we get another cutting? What are you going to do if we get three cuttings next year? Though some say three cuttings is rare, especially if you don’t have your own equipment, which we obviously do not.

Now that the hay is in we have fencing to work on. Thankfully it is suppose to be nice all week and not too too hot. 70’s and 80’s slowly moving back up to the 90’s again.

P.S. By way of a wee update….Mr. L. picked up his last two wagons today and told us he had to bring in someone to fix his baler but he wasn’t accusatory like it was our fault or anything. The guy that planted our field refused to hay it, #1 he was backed up with other haying jobs but #2 he said it was all weeds and there were too many rocks in the field. When we told Mr. L. this he was matter of fact, “Hay fields have rocks….” We feel bad his baler broke but blessed he didn’t blame us/our hay field.

He also told us our pasture grass is coming back nicely and we can probably look at a second cutting mid to late October! Hoorah! The kids are going to love us!

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A May Baby?! – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on August 28, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Pregnancy and Birth, Seasonal Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Nope, it isn’t me that’s having a baby. It’s little Miss Moo! Well, hopefully. We had the vet (Dr. M) out on Saturday for a meet and greet. Kind of ridiculous but we have three vets, one for the horse, one for the cow and one for the cow and dog. Anyways, we’ll figure that all out later and hopefully narrow it down to one eventually! I wanted this vet to look at Miss Moo because we’ve been having a hard time putting weight on her. She came to us thin and while she’s gained some, she still isn’t where she should be and we’ve had a friend telling us she’s too thin and of course people driving by call Animal Control. So now I can say we’ve had her looked at by two vets who say while she’s a bit thin, she’s fine or she’s healthy and happy. Whew! That’s a load off my plate. Not only do I have children to worry about but now I have our animals! Oy, oy, oy!

A May Baby

This week the calendar indicated Miss Moo’s heat was due. We were kind of disappointed to find out that it takes a week to get bull semen straws for AI (artificial insemination). Then as “fate” would have it I get into a conversation on Facebook with Miss Moo’s second owner, who shared that she still had a straw left in Dr. M’s tank (they freeze bull semen and keep it in a freezer tank that he carries around) from the last time Miss Moo was bred and would I like to buy it!? I said sure, of course.

So when our daughter “B” told me yesterday that Miss Moo was showing signs of her heat cycle I put in a call to Dr. M. He came out yesterday afternoon checked her and confirmed she was in heat, he AI’d her with “Grumpy” a Guernsey bull that two of our cow friends have recommended.

If the AI “sticks” we will have a May baby calf! We are kind of hoping for a heifer calf (female) as Dr. M suggested thinking about replacing Miss Moo since it takes a couple of years. Miss Moo is such a sweet cow we’d love to have one of her heifers so that’s what we are praying for! We want to try raising beef sometime in the future too but have to finish our fencing, which is a whole ‘nother blog topic or two!

For now, I told my husband if I’m not having any more babies I’m going to be excited and plan for farm babies! He just kind of looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head. Nah, just kidding! He likes Miss Moo too.

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Farmer Harrassment – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on August 14, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Home, Organic, Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday we received something in the mail. I knew it was something to do with our farm when it was addressed “Resident” in sloppy handwriting. You have to understand the location of our farm to get why we receive these kinds of things. We are on a very busy rural road. It was one of the pitfalls of moving here. We almost didn’t move because of how close the house is to the road and the traffic we get here.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. This is what we received:

This isn’t the first time something was dropped in the mail or mailbox but part of me wonders if it doesn’t constitute “farmer harrassment”? Have these people actually raised poultry? Have they tried a free range, no soy, organic egg? Or are they just being an overly concerned suburbanite? It baffles me the nerve of some people.

Our chickens and turkeys quite often are out of their portable coops. They have been getting braver or more curious and going closer to the road – silly things! Otherwise they are happy as they free range around the property all day. We have people telling us our eggs are some of the best they’ve tasted and we’ve been selling out of eggs for weeks. There’s a reason for that….they are not cooped up all day on a dirt floor because we have space for them to roam. They get fresh air, sunshine and all the pasture delights they can find! We haven’t seen but two ticks all year and we believe our chickens are the reason.

P.S. The FDA is trying to force free range egg producers to restrict hens from outdoor access or go out of business. Read more at Cornucopia Institute.

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Be Pawsitive Organic Pet Treats

Posted by html404 on August 12, 2013
in All Natural Products, Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Home, Organic, Pet Food, Uncategorized

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

Our 18 month old puppy, Padfoot, loves to eat. We try to eat as much organic as possible ourselves and try not to leave our pets behind in that process. All of our animals are fed organic feed, with the exception of our horse but we are not going to eat him or products produced by him. We tried him on an organic grain briefly but because of how worn down his teeth are he couldn’t chew it properly.

Be Pawsitive Organic Pet Treats

When we were invited to do a review of Be Pawsitive Organic Pet Treats we were very interested trying these for our pooch.

Be Pawsitive Organic Pet Treats are loaded with rich fruits and berries. When you buy a box of Be Pawsitive treats you provide a box of treats for a shelter dog too.

Customers can choose from one of three monthly subscription options for as low as $18 per month. Subscription plans are as follows: monthly plan at $24/month, $66 for three months ($22/month) or $108 for six months ($18/month). Customers can also give the treat box as a gift. For more information or to order Be Pawsitive’s monthly treat box, please visit www.bepawsitive.com. The “Buy One, Give One” campaign is part of Be Pawsitive’s company philosophy, and is available at all times.

Be Pawsitive Organic Pet Treats Review

Padfoot responded really well to the treats we received from Be Pawsitive. Our daughter used them only for training. He has been sitting when anyone comes over to him, he is coming better and listening more.

He loved the rawhide card and had so much fun with it! We think he thought it was a toy at first because he acted really fiesty and wanted to play, as you can see from his playful stance in the photo below.

We also received “power berry” dog biscuits. Not only did Padfoot love them but our cats also liked them! The ingredients are all natural and organic and almost all the ingredients except the olive oil and bananas come from the USA – yay!

Be Pawsitive organic pet treats gets two thumbs up from us!

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Brutus the Hog – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on July 31, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

This is Brutus the Hog. He is a heritage breed Tamworth pig. We met him on one of our trips to a local farm to purchase turkeys. His owners said he climbs into his water trough every day to do this (see photo below) and makes a ton more work – because the trough has to be washed out every day rather than weekly or however often the farmer deemed best. We thought it was hilarious that Brutus did this.

Then what does our cow do a week later? Yes, Miss Moo climbed in her 25 gallon water trough and cracked it! Argh! Those stock tanks are not cheap. Thankfully, we had purchased ours used, but still they are hard to come by in good shape even when purchasing them used. So she now has to use her hay bucket for water.

My husband is interested in raising some heritage hogs. They are really fun to observe. Not sure at what point we’ll get to raising hogs but thinking of all the bacon we’d get from a hog makes our mouth water!