Whatta Week!

Farmer Mark, as we all know is obsessed with the weather (pretty much every farmer is because so much is dependent on the weather). He checks the weather in the morning with his coffee and every evening. If it looks like its going to be haying weather, he calls me every few hours to see if it has changed. SERIOUSLY!

Sunday it was determined that this was going to be a good week. We made the decision to mow all we had left. Roughly, 35 acres! Well, it helped that my nephew Jeremy called and offered to help & use some of his equipment in exchange for Mark helping with his roof. Amazingly, they accomplished both. Hay is all in the barn & roof is done. I think we were all a little nervous on Monday night when all the hay was down, his roof was open, and we knew rain was coming on Saturday. We were praying the weather was going to stay nice for the week.

Here's what it looked like for them, work on roof until dew was off, than work on hay till late afternoon, back on roof till dark.  What that met for me: chores both morning & night by myself, running Kira where she needed to be by myself  (big thanks to my favorite sis for making a SOS call to OV), running the house & everything/anything by myself. Then 5 hours of tedding on Wednesday , 5 hours of  raking on Thursday, 2 hours of raking on Friday = sunburned face and sore a** due to the fact the Grandpa tractor has zero padding! K1 was a huge help on Friday by running the petting barn  ( we had 2 preschool field trips that day!)& helping  me to unload hay while Andy & Jeremy stacked.  Phew! Mission accomplished!

What's next? Now, that haying is DONE! Firewood for our house & sugaring. We have 95% of our wood for the winter cut & split, we just need to bring it all in. We have about 1 %  of sugar wood done and that was what we did last week. A friend of mine that is a Farmer once said every fall she thinks she has enough hay & firewood, than in January she starts worrying that there's not enough of either. So True!

We continue....Livin the dream!

Notice, how appropriate Mark's shirt is.

P.S. We still have meat shares available and mark your calendar for Fall Fun Day on October 12th!

Encouragement

Everyone need words of encouragement. If you are a follower of my blog you will know that this farming adventure has had its share of ups & downs. Besides our love and belief in farming we've had lots of encouragement & support.

I am encouraged every time children visit the animals at the barn. The look of wonder & excitement they have. Then when we tell them that they can actually go in and pet the animals, that's a whole other level of excitement. Or the child that is afraid of the animals at first & I go in the pens with them and eventually they overcome their fears & love petting the animals. Many people tell me the petting barn is a wonderful opportunity for kids.

Here's some of my favorite comments:

"It's nice & clean in here"

"Your animals are so happy & healthy"

" I love what you do"

One little girl called it "The Fun Farm"

Many parents jokingly ask for a cot for their child because they don't want to leave.

My favorite was on opening day this little child asked K3 "how old do you have to be to work here?"

I also love children learning new vocabulary- picture a 3 yr old saying alpaca & chinchilla.

Our meat & poultry shares have also been a big hit.   I have been told we have THE BEST: bacon, pork chops, hamburg & chicken. My friend told me her husband said it was the best chicken he eaten & she said he's eaten a TON of chicken in his life :)

As for support I have the absolute BEST family & friends! 

Many have purchased CSA shares, buy eggs every week, or spread the word to others.

Leo & Arlene (best landlords ever) have been so supportive, starting with believing in our crazy farming idea!

My BF Lisa, sent me a letter of encouragement early on that I treasure.

I have to mention Sharon, my coworker for 7 years. She listened to all my farming ideas for years & trust me there were many. She told me I would eventually find my niche and I did!

I love you guys & THANK-YOU!

Long overdue update

Well, around here is back to school time. All the K's are suddenly very busy. K1 started @ Castleton (commutes from home), still works, and spends all her "free" time with her horse. K2 is back to Stafford in the cosmetology program, she also works & all her "free" time belongs to K boy. K3 is doing the mooselamoo program at OV. Which is a more hands on/outdoor type of learning, and she likes it much better than "regular" school. She is also the field hockey goalie. All three girls played last year, so it seems strange to only have one on the field.

Life at the petting barn is good. We have some birthday parties & field trips planned for this month. I did cut back my days to Friday - Sunday. It's really nice to be able to catch up at home.

We processed all our turkeys two weeks ago. It's a relief to have them gone. We were feeding/taking care of 5 different groups of birds 19 turkeys, 40 layers, 75 meat chicks, the chickens at the petting barn, and the pullets. The pullets are the chicks we got the first week the petting barn opened. The are getting really big, and we brought them home, so they could go outside. Can you find them in the tall grass?

Here are the meat chickens. We move them everyday. They are growing really fast. I have to say that I don't like these chickens, but boy the meat is sure good. Everyone thinks so...we sold out of our chicken shares. Next year we aim to do more. This year we processed almost 200 birds. In VT you can do up to a thousand on farm per year. We definitely have room for growth. 

We brought the two female piglets home, so they could be outside for a while. We brought a big pig to the petting barn. He was full of mud, so Mark decided to brush him. The pig loved it! He laid down like a dog wanting his tummy rubbed.

Marks favorite animals on the farm, His cows! Black Beauties calf which we call Black Jack (was going to be Ebony, but this fits better) is huge. He is going fast! We sent our Hereford steer to be processed. I got the call he was done & went to pick up the meat. Which I than unloaded by myself. Mark with his impeccable timing showed up as I was putting the last box in the freezer. Fall is the time of year to prepare for winter. We still have winter CSA meat shares available.

We made a upgrade to the farm store- very fitting....