Well, it has been awhile. My lofty intentions of keeping a blog about our family’s farm extravaganza has not gone as planned. In addition to this farm, I work full-time (well…did… I begin my internships in school counseling soon and will work full-time, unpaid) and I am in grad school full-time (est. time of completion, May 2016). So, this leaves little time to write. But we’ve had a year. And I thought, why not end the year with a review of our chaos, a review of the seasons.
Winter
I left this blog with a post about our only substantial snowfall. It was grand and perfect for our mass of land. We had a bonfire, plowed runways for sledding, and cooked hotdogs on the grill.
Spring
Spring brought 14(?) new chicks. The chicks were a variety of silkies, barred rocks, buff orpingtons, and easter eggers. They happened to come home one day when the kids were off from school and their dad thought it would be fun to go to Agway to look at chicks. Not to be outdone while I was at work, weeks later I thought we needed more barred rocks and silkies. We also hatched eggs for the first time in an incubator and one of our hens went broody.
That broodiness added 5 more chicks. Yet, shortly after this photo was taken, a predator (not sure what) took out 9 of our flock, including our beloved Ree and one of her chicks. Three other hens were injured and survived. I returned home from work to see our Polish hen, Francis, in the field. There were no other chickens around and as I approached her, I noticed the gapping hole on her back. This was our largest slaughter ever – most of the bodies were dragged into the hay fields and left. The whole loss thing on a farm is not something I am getting used to. Even with chickens.
Hazel joined our farm on Good Friday in April. I drove to Kentucky to bring her home and I am not even sure how we ever survived without her. She is the smartest dog and herds us like a champ. She is loyal and loving and has been the best addition to our farm this year.
Summer
We farmed our hay fields for the first time with another family. This was our first experience baling and after three cuttings, we unanimously agreed we loved it. We lucked out with the weather and had a record amount of bales for our land. Working together with friends was fun for everyone – something we were thankful to experience.
Summer brought growth for our farm. We welcomed Willie, an appaloosa/quarter horse to our pastures. We grew vegetables and sunflowers, planted trees and reintroduced bees to our land.
Our youngest member of the farm arrived home in August, shortly before school started. Sheldon was two days old when I drove him home. We knew he was going to be a big boy and he adjusted without incident, unlike Oscar. He’s been pretty easy and joined his new pasture mate early in the Fall.
Fall
The largest addition to the farm this year was Pearl. Pearl is a 15 3 1/2 hand appendix mare that belongs to our oldest daughter. Unlike Willie, who is a lawn ornament, Pearl will be a competition horse. She is beautiful and gentle. While she has a burst of energy once a cycle, she is a level-headed girl, who is figuring out her place on this farm. She was one of 19 horses to be tested throughout the late summer and fall months. She arrived home the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
While our winter has started off muddy and warm (blech), we are grateful the weather has allowed us to accomplish putting in water and electric lines to the pastures. After last winter’s wrath and continuous ice breaking rituals, the animals will enjoy heated watering holes. Hopefully I can do a better job of updating this blog in 2016.
People sometimes shake their heads at us for buying a farm. But we think it’s pretty perfect, and love calling this place our home. Seriously, why not?
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