Still Can't Respond To Posts!

I cleared my cookies (that sounds rather weird!) and still I cannot respond to messages. Considering that my knowledge of computers is middling at best,it may be a while before I can figure it out. Please bear with me :)

(Update---I tried allowing third party cookies and now I can respond to posts! YAY!)

Yesterday we finally took down our tree,since we put up our tree late. Right now it's sitting on our deck,but today it will probably make it's way to the goats!

I am going to go through our bookcase and donate books that I no longer want. I am one of those people who will read and re-read a book I love many,many times,but there are books that I have read only once and that was enough. We do have a set of encyclopedias that are useless now-many countries don't even exist any longer!

We have been having bitter cold weather,with wind chills down in the teens. In fact,we brought our goats inside the other night because our heat bulb was broken:

They may have been OK,but I was too worried about them.

The next day we bought extra hay to bank around their cage and picked up a heat bulb. Our barn is still a work in progress:

The blue tarp in the photo covers the goat cage. Even though the barn is not complete,we figured it would give them some shelter from the wind. We put a piece of plywood across the top of the cage and and blue tarp over it. They have a large dog igloo to sleep in,and we make sure that they have fresh shavings for bedding. We also make sure we bank it with bedding hay to help keep them warm.( Plus the heat lamp,of course).

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Fleece!

I feel bad about not posting more,but it's been so crazy around here! Yard clean up is nearing it's end,which means we can start on the barn. We have had lots of scouting activities to either participate or bring Zach to. I have been busy reading up on things,designing labels,and yesterday I made some laundry soap-one batch for us,and I did make another so I can begin to sell it. I did have a nice overnight trip with my Dear Friend Michelle to Sharon Springs NY for their Garden Party and to visit the Beekman 1802 store and chat with Josh and Brent and get autographs (more about that on my next post).

A few weeks ago,the NH Farm Museum held a shearing demonstration,so I went. Rick and Zach were at the Boy Scout Spring Camporee that weekend,so I was by myself. Tim and Lisa,who own Heart Stone Farm over Milton,were giving the demonstration ( Tim sheared,Lisa discussed the fleece). Come to find out,their farm is only about 5 minutes from us. I was able to chat with Tim and Lisa after he sheared one of the Museum's sheep,ask a few questions,and glean some insight into the world of shearing one's own sheep. I told Tim about how we came about becoming farmers,Rick's disability,etc,and he mentioned that his wife was a veteran as well. Both he and Lisa suggested that we have our sheep professionally done first,then take shearing classes because it looks easier than it is.

After liking each other on Facebook,I received a message from Tim saying that he and his wife had been talking and because Rick was a veteran,he was offering his shearing services for free. He mentioned that many times,shearers don't like to shear small flocks,and won't go to a house with only three,but he like to help us out. Well,that was so kind of him,and we were a bit nervous about attempting it ourselves,so we happily accepted his offer.

One thing we have noticed is that the sheep owners circle around here is not very big. In fact,I originally wanted Babydoll Southdowns because they are small and I felt that would be better for our size of land,but I couldn't find any on line and knew no one who would have a clue as to what a Babydoll Southdown was,let alone point me in the right direction. Come to find out,Tim and Lisa have Babydoll Southdowns! Right now I am happy with my Romneys,but getting one or two Babydolls at some point may not be out of the question.

Because the circle is not very big,everyone who has been in this circle that we have come in contact with are more than willing to help in anyway possible,because they remember what it was like for them starting out and having no local resources whatsoever. Lisa offered to show me how to skirt fleece at their place,and Tim told Rick he would show him how to give the sheep shots when the time comes. He even trimmed their hooves for us,and showed Rick how to do that.Morning,noon,or night,if we had an issue with the sheep,we can call them. If sheep get sick,they tend to go down hill very fast. Now we have two great contacts-Priscilla,who sold us the Romneys,and Tim and Lisa.

Tim did tell Rick that our sheep are in excellent health,and that they have beautiful fleece. He can tell that we care for our animals.

It's amazing how small the sheep look once they are shorn:

This is Starlight's fleece. She has some lovely reddish color in it:

This is Violet's. She is all white/beige:

This is Woolsey's. Woolsey has darker wool with some tan and reddish color in it.

 You can see the lovely crimping that each has in their wool.

My next step is skirting,which cutting the nasty areas off and taking out the big pieces of vegetation,etc. Then,the fleece gets cleaned,Once it's dried,it gets "filcked" which means the smaller pieces of foreign matter get cleaned out,then it gets carded so all the fibers go in the same direction,then the fleece gets spun into yarn. I am not going to  dye these,I am going to leave them their natural colors.

Today it's raining,but it gives me a good chance to putter around inside and get caught up on some housework before I have to bring Zach to the Dr's for his camp physical once he gets out of school.

I will leave you with this lovely sunrise we had yesterday!

Morning Stroll

When the weather is nice,we take the goats for a run up the Class VI road that runs along our property. There are only 5 houses on it,and it's a dead end,so it's not busy at all. 

Since Zach was in school,Rick was the runner this AM:

Our neighbor who lives behind us had her Great nephew visiting,and he loves our goats. She has brought him down on a few occasions to visit with the animals,and he adores the goats. He had to help Rick with the morning run:

It's great to introduce little ones to farm animals,and wonderful to seem them have fun!

The Ladies see us running with the goats and they call out to us..."BAAAAAAAA!!!!!" They let us know in no uncertain terms (very loudly,I might add) that they are hungry and ready for breakfast. We tell them to please be patient,the little ones have to come first.

Patience is rewarded by some fresh water and tasty feed hay.

While they are still a bit skittish,yesterday I was able to pat Starlight for a few seconds,and when I got a quick pat onto Violet and Woolsey,they didn't bolt away from me like before. They just backed away a few inches. I guess they are finally getting used to me :)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted.Between Boy Scouts,Dr appts,reading up on "how to" do this and that, running errands,and taking care of the animals,it seems like time has gone by in the blink of an eye.

We are finally out of the throes of winter,the snow is gone,and the leaves are now coming out on the trees,the forsythia is blooming,and the weather is getting pleasant-thank goodness! It was a long,snowy winter,and we are finally to my favorite season-Spring.

The Girls are now laying on a regular basis,and we are letting them free range once again. I love the way they scratch at the ground and eat the bugs they find-their fluffy bottoms are quite cute ( am I the only one who thinks that? )

The goats are doing very well. Scout,Rick's wether,is on his last week of bottle feeding. We are down to one bottle feed a day for him. On Friday,Blizzard,my wether,goes down to one bottle feeding a day. By the end of the month,all the goats will be off the bottle. We have not found another doeling yet.

The Ladies are doing great.I went to a sheep shearing demonstration at the NH Farm Museum a couple weeks ago,and chatted with Tim,who was doing the demonstration. Come to find out,he and his wife,Lisa live only about 5 minutes from us. His wife is also a veteran,and he offered to to shear our sheep for us for free so he could show us how to to do it so we wouldn't have to attempt it by ourselves at first. I thought that was pretty nice of him!

Last week we had a bit of rain and a rainbow appeared-it started not far from our house. I have never been so close to a rainbow before.It was really cool. It started a few doors down from us,then went over the edge of our yard and across the street!

Today we are going down to my sisters house for Mother's Day dinner. Since she and my Mom are moving down to TN in early Fall,this may be the last Mother's Day we have together. Aside from that and the basic dishes and sweeping,I am not doing a darn thing all day! Today I am Queen!

I hope all you Mom's out there get spoiled like you deserve! I got a lovely breakfast served to me on the deck this AM,and a back massage coming this evening from my hubby :)

Mud Season

I love when he weather starts getting warmer and the snow melts. We have had it with the snow and cold.This week,temperatures are in the  upper 50's-low 60's.That's practically tropical!!

The downfall to the snow melt and the showers that April bring,is the mud. Yes,mud season is upon us.

Mud everywhere! Deep puddles of water,several inches of mud. One has to have Muck-Muck boots to walk around the yard. The other day,everything was wet and there must've been a hundred birds in the yard singing. It was very early,I was still in my nightgown,but I had to be outside to enjoy the beautiful chorus-of course,when the Ladies heard me close to the door to the deck,they started bleating-breakfast time!

Muck-Muck boots don't have to be Plain Janes. They can be very pretty and fun!!!

I'm sure the birds enjoyed them....and the Ladies heartily approved!

Look Out,Ladies!!!

Look out Violet,Woolsey,and Starlight.......

Our new purchase was a set a electric shears from Colonial Acres Farm,where we bought the Ladies.Priscilla told us they have only been used a few times-for the amount of sheep they have,it was too time consuming for them and they decided to have someone else shear their flock. Since we only have three sheep,we figure that we can give it whirl. The Ladies were sheared late last summer,but they look like they may need it again. This winter was pretty cold,and their fleece looks a bit long and thick. We did buy coats for them to keep their fleece clean,but at this point,we are not going to bother putting them on until we shear them. Once they are sheared,we are going to wash and card the fleece,then I am going to try my hand at spinning. That's the plan,anyway!

We have been watching videos on line of sheep being sheared,and the shears come with a step by step instruction booklet. Whether or not we make a shearing stand remains to to be seen. I guess we will just have to wait and see how bad it is on our backs doing it on a covered area on the ground.

We don't have a date set yet to start this process. We are in the beginning of what we refer to as "mud season" and we still have quite a bit of snow left ( our barn is not built yet,remember).

 Poor Ladies...they might look funny after  our first attempt. Don't worry,it will grow back!

Buy Hay While The Sun Shines

Since we don't have a hay field,we have to buy feed hay and bedding hay for the sheep. It's a far cry from the chapters in the "Little House" books where Pa is out in the sunshine cutting his hay and putting it up for the animals for the winter,and in the case of "The Long Winter," used as a heating source to keep them from freezing to death.

We called one of our local farm,Top of The Hill Farm, in Wolfboro. We got their contact from Colonial Acres Farm,where we purchased the sheep.Admittedly,we had been buying our hay from our small local hardware/farming store where we buy our chicks and chicken feed,but a few weeks ago they ran out of feed hay,and we needed some,so we pulled out Top of Hill's business card and gave the Frederickson's a call.

Thankfully,they did have some feed hay left,so we made arrangements to go over and get some bales. Rick hitched our trailer to the truck,and Zach,Richie,and I piled in to the truck. It was a family excursion,which made it really cool.

The first thing you notice about Top of the Hill is....it's on top of quite a hill. I would liken it to more like a small mountain. I loved their set up-greenhouse,barns,lots of acreage,and a gorgeous view of the lakes and mountains. Rick noticed the farm equipment first (of course!) The second thing you noticed was how cold it was! Being that high up,there is usually a good breeze blowing,and that day it was pretty bitter,coming off the lakes. It must be nice in the summer,though,to keep the black flies and mosquitoes at bay.

Alan (Dad),Erik(son) and Anna (daughter) were all outside doing various chores. The chickens were walking around the yard,the cattle were talking amongst themselves,and there must've been a hundred songbirds in chorus.  We chatted with Alan a bit,then drove the truck over to the barn to load up the hay. Erik went up into the hayloft and threw down the 20 bales we wanted. Rick and Zach loaded them into our trailer. Alan was apologetic-he had had surgery recently and couldn't lift anything heavy for a while. Anna was busy with the cows. Alan proudly told us that Anna's steer won Grand Champion Market Steer last year at the Fryeburg Fair in ME,and her Spring heifer had won in 2012 in as well. I stood by,chatted with Alan,and just took everything in. 

Once we were loaded up,we asked Alan about his beef (they sell grass-fed beef and pork!) and we went into his garage to look over various cuts of meat. We bought  a slab of bacon and a London broil.( Both wound up being the best we have ever tasted).

The hay was a dollar cheaper a bale and better than the ones we had been buying.Plus,we it felt better helping out a local farmer!

When we got home,it was time to unload the trailer:

The Ladies were waiting:

The chickens have begun laying again,and lately we have been averaging four- five eggs a day. Hopefully we will be able to start selling eggs again soon.


We are still buried in snow. Thankfully a snowstorm that is hitting MA today is staying to the south of us. This March has been much colder than normal,and I think everyone is ready for some warmer days. We have been getting some sap,but nothing like we should be. I doubt we will even get half a gallon of syrup this year.

 I needed some cheerful color,so I bought a handful of daffodils to bring some Spring into the house:

I enjoy watching the birds out my kitchen window. So far I have seen Robins,Cardinals,Chickadees,Mourning Doves,Slate Colored Juncos. We have also had White Breasted Nuthatches,like this little guy:

Today Zach is home recovering from the flu. He was very sick on Monday night into yesterday,and spent most of the day sleeping. Today he feels better,but is very tired and is still running a fever,so we kept him home again. Rick was just outside walking the dogs,and The Ladies were calling to him. It's so cool to hear them bleat. They chat with us every day! Time to go feed them and the chickens.

Stay warm!

Sap Is Running! No Wait,It's Not.....

It has been a couple of years since we tapped our trees,and this year we decided to give it a go again.

We sure picked a year with mighty strange weather for it.

If you are not familiar with making maple syrup,let me enlighten you! Maple trees,as you know,carry sap,which when it's boiled down,creates maple syrup. However,the weather dictates when and how long the sap runs. Usually sap season is about 6 weeks long,and tends to begin near the end of February-early March. Ideal weather is sunny,with daytime temps at  40-45 degrees and night time temps below freezing,though we have had sap run in the past with temps in the upper 30s during the day.This time of year, upper 30's-mid 40's daytime temps is fairly typical. However,this year is anything but.

The weather forecast at the end of last week seemed to predict pretty consistent day time temps of upper 30's to  low 40's,and the day we decided to tap the trees was balmy for this time of year in NH( it was in the upper 50's in the sun by our thermometer) so we knew the sap would be running.

We washed all our buckets and spouts with boiling hot water-you don't want to use any soap. Rick got his drill and trusty old 7/16 bit drill with a 3/8 shank,and I carried the buckets and spouts (oh,and the camera!)

We only have Red and Silver Maples on our property,but you can still tap them. The syrup is lighter than what you would get from a Sugar Maple,but we still find it quite delicious. We had to make sure that we we kept a ways from the old holes from previous sap collection years ( at least 6 or so inches)so we had to find the old hole areas first. Trees 18"- 20" in diameter can take one tap;anything over can take 2. Some folks say to use no more than two taps per tree.

The hole should be about 2 feet from the ground. It was a bit tricky figuring that out,since we still have 3 feet of snow in some areas,but we did the best we could. The south side of the tree is best,but if you have more than one tap you should put move it to another area of the tree. 

Here is Rick drilling a hole. It should be slanted upwards,to help the sap flow. It's also good to do over a root,if you can see the root! Not in our yard. We could walk across it in some spots,in others we sank down almost to our knees.

See the sap pouring out of the hole? The sap is running!

Tap your spout into the tree with a hammer. You can tell if you have seated it in the hole enough if the sap runs down the spout. If not,the sap will run on the sides of the tap. Sometimes,the sap will not run,and you have to seat the spout a bit more to get it going.

Place your hook on the spout,then hang the bucket on the hook. I tried to get a photo of the sap dripping into the bucket,but couldn't. It was great to hear the tap-tap-tap sound of the sap landing in the metal pails around the yard.

Place a cover over the bucket. This will keep rain,snow,and assorted debris out.

Ta Da!

It certainly was a gorgeous day!

Unfortunately,the weather turned and we got a day with strong winds that made temps go below freezing,which stopped the sap flow,then a warmer day came,and the sap started to run again. Maple syrup producers have been less than happy with our colder than normal temperatures.It is making the season shorter. Sap season ends when buds start coming out on the trees-usually the end of March-beginning of April. When the buds come out,the sap will turn bitter.

We have 12 buckets going. We will see what happens!

Home Organization Binders

I had a home organizer binder for a few years now. It was a 3" binder,that was getting so very full that I had no room to put any more pages in it. It was also quite heavy. I had not only household organizing in it,but gardening and chicken info too. Well, now that we are expanding,I had to separate the home from the farm. My old binder was very boring. I perused various websites and found some nice ideas at http://strangersandpilgrimsonearth.blogspot.com/2013/03/keepers-at-home-home-management-binder.html. I liked the idea of photos and quotes,so I scoured the internet and made some pages of my own,thanks to her ideas. A great website for information pages ishttp://blog.worldlabel.com/2012/organizing-planner-the-harmonized-house-project.html. It has some info pages that you can download and just type the information right onto the pages! 

My home binder:

Here is an example of the beginning of the section for contact information:

In the home binder, I have the following sections:

-Contacts and Reference Information
 *Emergency Numbers
 *Family and Friends Contact Info
 *School Info
 *Medical Information
 *Website passwords
 *Utility,Insurance Info

-Homemaking Info
 * Daily,Weekly,Monthly and Seasonal To do lists
 * Homemade Cleaning Recipes 
 * Laundry Soap records ( how much I spend and how often I make it to see how much     money I save)
 *Essential Oil Information

-Blogging 
 *Ideas
 *Stats

I save ideas from magazines and incorporate them into the binder as well.



Farm information:

-Gardening

 *What is planted and dates

 *Square foot garden maps

 *Weights of harvests

 * What I sell and how much is earned ( New for this year!)

-Chickens

 *Number of chickens 

 *Egg records-gathered,sold,and how much earned

 * Feed records 

-Sheep

 *Health records,when it's time to trim hooves,etc

 * Record of feed hay and bedding hay,when bought and how much spent

 * Shearing Records-when sheared,how much collected

 * Yarn Records-weight and number of skeins spun, plants used for coloring,color records ( New for this year!)

-Goats ( new in Spring!)

 * Health records

 * Feed records

 *Birth records (2015)

 * Milk weight (2015)

 * Products produced ( milk,cheese,soap.etc) how much made,sold,and earned (2015)

Each binder is different for each person. What you want to keep track of depends on you! You will need:

-2" or 3" binders

-plastic paper protectors

-tabbed dividers ( if you wish to break down the main subjects more)

-stick on file tabs

To decided what subjects I wished to put in the organizers,I wrote everything I wanted to include  on a piece of paper. I chose the main topics,and then decided what information that I wanted to include in each one.

I have also made a binder for all the instruction booklets,warranties,and manuals for things  around the house,such as the computer,TVs,DVD player,fridge,oven,etc. I got tired of them slipping and sliding in the file cabinet. Now everything is in a page protector and is not going anywhere. I also made a binder for my knitting and crocheting patterns,and am working on one ( or more) for my family tree information. Right now I have several notebooks and folders that are jammed into the bottom drawer of the file cabinet,and I really need to free up the space.

A quick thank you to everyone who responded to my last post. You have no idea how comforting it is to read such wonderful,heartfelt support!

The Barn Begins!

Over the weekend,we prepped the area for the barn and dug holes to place the sonitubes. 

The first thing to be done was to move the chicken coop and tear down the fencing. We rented a mini excavator and it was a big help in tearing down the fencing,since we used sonitubes and cement to help stabilize the fence. We had to dig around the fence,then tear it down. Next was figuring out how to move the hen house. The chickens will be inside the barn,and the hen house will be cleaned out and used to store hay and feed. It will be located outside the barn,but we will be able to access it from a door that will go from the barn into the hen house. We put long saplings under the hen house,put a chain around it,and pulled it out of the way. Then we used the excavator to dig 16 holes,each 4 ft deep. Each hole needs to be one every ten feet,but we also had to put them where the doors to barn were going to be.

Before:

The hen house will be equal with the  end of the wood shelter. You can see in the photo above the door faces at 6:00,it will now face at 3:00.

Zach had to get in on the action,of course!

Well,at least I will be able to paint and scrub down the garage next year. The barn is going to be 5 ft off this area. I wanted to get the house and garage painted this year,but no such luck.

Temporary home for the hens.

The digging begins!

The End Of A 381 Year Era

One of the wonderful things about living in NH is that we are part of a rich historical heritage. It's amazing to think that our little state was part of the beginning of the US.Even more amazing is knowing that my son gets to claim some of this heritage as his own-Rick's 10th great grandfather Rev Stephen Bachiler was the founder of Hampton,NH,and his 10th great grandfather Edward Hilton founded the town of Dover,as well as some various cousins who founded the towns of Deerfield and Loudon. His 10th great grandfather Joshua Pratt came over on the Anne,the third ship after the Mayflower. Needless to say, NH roots run deep in Rick's ( and now Zach's) family. 1620 something makes for mighty long roots.

I cannot claim such a lineage,since my ancestors arrived here from Canada starting in the 1870's,and I am a third generation America on both sides of the family. However,I have always had a deep love of NH and it's history. We were born here,and here we will die.

This brings me to the story behind my post today. One of the oldest families in NH,the Tuttles,arrived in Dover sometime in the late 1620's-early 30's.John Tuttle arrived in this country with a land grant from King Charles II and in 1632 began the oldest continuously operated family farm in America ( this has been challenged,but I stand by the Tuttles). I have driven by the Tuttle farm many times,seen it's large corn field green and waving in the breeze,stopped at the farm stand and purchased delicious fresh produce. It is a wonderful part of our state heritage,and a great example of the family farm.

Sadly,three years ago the family decided to put it up for sale. I cannot imagine that this was an easy decision to make. It would've been up to the new generation of Tuttles to run the farm,and it would've required all hands on deck. A farm of this scale ( now 197 acres,at peak 240) is a massive undertaking and if all hearts are not into it,it would not work. I personally don't know if I could have borne the thought of selling something that was in the family for 10 or so generations,and all the sweat and hard work that each generation put into that land.The very thought makes me sick to my stomach and I am sure that they have had many,many sleepless nights.I don't envy having to make such a decision. 

The farm has been sold to a gentleman from MA who has run a successful farm for about 30 years and who wishes to keep it a farm. I was very happy and grateful to hear that the land cannot be broken up and sold off into condos,etc,which was what I automatically thought of when I first started reading about the sale. It seems like many family farms tend to be sold off and then dismantled,which I find incredibly sad. I am very glad that if the Tuttles had to sell it,at least they sold it to someone who understands the importance and value of this farm to the community.

You can read more about the Tuttle Farm here. It's a quick Wikipedia article but it's current and the facts are indeed correct.( If you wish to read more articles,just type in Tuttles Farm,Dover NH into your search box.)

Do you have any local farms that have been sold? Have they been kept going,or have they been put aside for "progress?"

There's A Nip In The Air

Foliage is past peak here,and many of the bright yellows,reds,are oranges are not quite as bright and pretty. Many leaves are in the process of turning brown. Our maple tree in the front yard has lost all it's leaves. While the we have been fairly fortunate with the weather-the temperatures haven't been too chilly-we are now starting a stretch of days in 40's and lows at night in the 20's. Today is overcast,and we had to start up the wood stove to ward off the chill. I have Cinnamon and Pumpkin Spice candles lit,and the heat and the scent make things very cozy.

We have finally figured out how big we want the barn.Now that the garden boxes have all been pulled up,it easier to visualize it and measure it out. The barn will be attached to our garage,and will measure 20' X 30'. Rick went down the street to our local lumber yard to check out pole barn packages with shiplap siding. We have to start digging very soon,before the ground hard freezes. As soon as we get our pricing,we can submit the plan to the town so we can get our building permit.

Today I am making soap,and am excited to use my new acrylic mold with dividers. I can make 15 bars of soap with it. I want to sell soap,and for it to look as nice as possible. I can not cut a straight line to save my life-so my previous soaps have always been less than pretty,which is OK for our use-but for selling purposes,not such a good thing.

I thought I would leave you with some photos of our Halloween outdoor decorations. You can see some of our new stairs/mini deck in the first photo. I am going to take better pictures when the new doors are in.

Have a lovely day!!!

Garlic Planting

It's that time of the year to plant garlic for next year's harvest. We decided this year to replant everything we grew this year,with the exception of  a few cloves that we had already used. This coming year,if all grows well,we should have 50 garlic plants,so can sell some garlic next year.

Rick has been taking the compost out of our square foot boxes and putting it back into the compost pile,saving the boxes that have not succumbed to the weather as of yet. Our boxes have been hanging out in NH weather for four or five years now,so it's understandable that some have felt the strain of winter and rain. As I mentioned in a previous post,we are moving our boxes because they are in the are where our barn/grazing area is going to be. Since I had to plant the garlic now,Rick moved two boxes next to the strawberries and herbs and refilled them with compost. I took the heads of garlic and removed all the cloves. I had 50 cloves exactly.

Each clove should be two inches deep and 8" apart. The pointy part of the clove should face down into the dirt.

Push that little guy down two inches....

...and cover it up with compost

Give the cloves a good watering and then cover them with 2-3 of mulch. We used straw. You can use leaves,etc.

Now you wait until Spring when the shoots first start showing up through the mulch! Pretty easy,isn't it?