PUPPIES....Adopt us!

K3 my devoted dog lover, faithfully watches Potters Angel Rescue (PAR) website & facebook page. She saw that they had posted over 70 dogs that were on a kill list in SC. They had 48 hrs to save them. K3 was so upset she couldn't eat dinner. We had planned on fostering puppies in June when I was done work & the petting barn was open. But, of course this was an emergency, so I told K3 to find the youngest puppies & we would foster 4. She argued 6, but I was firm (for once!). We picked four, put in the call, and filled out the foster forms.

We were told the dogs would arrive between 2 am and 6 pm on Saturday.Friday night around 9 I found out they would be here at 5:30 am, which means we would leave at 4:30 am. Off to bed we went...but at 10:30 we received word they were 2 hrs later.Phew!

We picked up our 2 puppies, because the other 2 were taken. Two minutes into the ride home, one pooped. I am a farm girl, but dog poop makes me gag! So here I am with all the windows down (freezing) and I am gagging, and K3 is laughing. We pull over & clean up the mess and head home. It's been Crazy Fun ever since.

Meet our girls, Shirley & Betta. They are up for adoption, so let me or PAR know if you are interested.

 Shirley: She is a sweet girl that LOVES her toys. She follows us everywhere, she is a people girl. Super social girl. She has very soft fur and expressive eyes.She gets this devilish look when she runs off with a stray sock.She will be a very loyal dog.

Betta:  She is a love bug! She loves to find a cozy place to curl up & sleep. She LOVES her dog bed & tries to sneak unto the couch. She has the cutest ears that perk up when she is interested in something. Betta is a very mellow pup. She'd make a great addition to any family.

We are having a blast getting to know these pups with their very different personalities. Everyone that meets them has a different favorite. 

We are anxiously waiting for our new family!

RIP Pheobe

Phoebe was our first sheep. K3 wanted natural colored Romneys. I couldn't find any so we went all the way to Maine (4hr drive each way) and picked up Phoebe & Raquel, fall of 09. They were suppose to be bred but we were  greatly disappointed not to have any lambs that spring. Phoebe was  the sweet mellow one. She had this very deep unmistakable Bah!

She ended up lambing in 2011 & gave K3 a ram & ewe , she named Destiny whom K3 showed.
In 2012 she had a Ewe named Harley.
This year she had two rams.

 All her babies look just like her. They have very wooly faces & we end up having to trim around their eyes because they can't see! Phoebe was a very friendly girl who would come right up to you in the pasture. One funny thing about her was when she had lambs she was afraid of little kids. She would stamp her feet at them & not want them near her babies, but she had no problem with us holding her lambs.

Sadly, last night we had to put our Phoebe girl down...we will miss her.....

Leaps & Bounds

We are GROWING in LEAPS & BOUNDS! Which is why weekly blogs are all I can manage.

This is what my weekend looked like: First thing Sat am, after chores of course, we went to Foxcroft Farm & bought six piglets. I love supporting local farms (and businesses)! We actually traded a ram last fall toward spring piglets. I was happy to see he did his job, and they had lots of little lambs running in the pasture.The piglets had a rough day adjusting to the electric fence, but now they have it figured out. This beautiful sunny weather has been hard on them, poor babies are sunburned. For some reason they are not going in their hut to get out of the sun. Yesterday, I ran the hose & made mud for them to play in. Mark came home & caught me in the pasture with the pigs. I told him I was playing in the mud with them, but actually I was just squatted down taking pictures & enjoying watching them...they are really cute.

Then it was time to take K2 to get her hair done for prom, Then prom pictures. She looked BEAUTIFUL! A little girl saw her walking on the street on her way to prom and said, "Look Daddy...a Princess". She went with her boyfriend, and they look so happy together.

Then we went to my Nieces graduation party. She graduated from nursing school. Way to go LAURA!

We got up with the sun on Sunday, did chores & hit the road to buy our mini horses. It was a 2 1/2 hour trip each way. But they were worth it, they are so friendly & super cute. They are full sisters, Nancy & Abby. I only have one pic right now & just looking at the face I am not sure which one it is.

We got home, set up our new coral (which we also bought from the lady selling the horses), went & got the last of our hay (YIKES!), then Mark went & worked excavating the drive way at the barn. The last thing we did before bed was take out Miley's stitches. Thanks for the assistance Dj!

P.S. We have 20 turkey pullets, coming tomorrow!

Completely Overwhelmed

I don't even know where to start...I guess with Miss Miley. Last week the dogs had to go out at midnight & they took off. I called them & called them, I actually fell asleep on the couch waiting for them. Finally, after 1/2 hour they came in. The next morning when Miley got up I noticed her limping, so I checked her feet (remember Carter cut his pad last month, happy to say he is completely healed).Found nothing & off she went, she was fine. 10  o'clock  that night K1 comes in our room & asked what happened to Miley. Well, apparently she cut her leg right near her shoulder, and she had licked it wide open- like peeled the skin back a good inch. She must have cut it on her midnight outing & then  made it worse. It was now a 24 hr cut - too late for stitches (or so I thought!).We got out the vet wrap,antibiotic ointment, and duct tape. We did that for a day 1/2 then her leg swelled. Friday am I called the vet as soon as they opened and they had one opening @ 2:00. Turns out they can stitch it, so we  had to leave her, they put her out , and we picked her up a few hours later. I won't even tell you what Marks face looked like when he got that bill! Miley was so pathetic, all drugged and sad with the cone. Now she is running into everything with her cone head, but that doesn't stop her!

We also found out K1's car will not pass inspection, due to a rotten frame. Now we have till May first to find a car. After 1/2 a day of car shopping (which we really didn't have time for) I got a new to me car & K1 has my car.

We successfully moved the meat chicks out to pasture & what an ordeal that was. First we moved the canopy & set up the fence-

Then we loaded the chicks in 2 loads to move them-

Happy Chicks-

We also moved the cows to the pasture @ the new barn. Mark says its sad when your whole herd fits in a two horse trailer.  The cows are very content in their new space. A big thanks to Leo & Arlene (best landlord ever!) for fixing the fence.

We have been plugging away at the barn, it's totally painted & ready to start building pens.

That's all for now - I gotta go to work (can't wait for school to be done!)

I'll leave you with a few signs of spring :)

My raspberry bushes ..

Goodbye vacation...

My week off was so nice..makes me & the girls long for summer. Only 8 more weeks of school to go. Some days the weather was nice (we hit 70 degrees one day!), other days were cold & windy (there was frost on the cars this morning).

I got lots done around the house, hung up my first load of laundry for the year, and even did a little work in the garden.I wish I had done some planting but I just trimmed the raspberries & cleaned up the flower bed. I was really excited to realize that my friend Peter's (Four Pillars Farm) veggie CSA starts in a few weeks & we traded shares since I won't have as much time to garden this summer & he doesn't raise any meat. I can't wait for fresh from the garden veggies. He brought us a sample of radishes & they were yummy!

We tried to get the leaves out of the bottom of the pool and we found a pair of pajama pants that must have blown in on the last day of fall that I hung up the clothes! I've washed them twice but can't get the see weedy smell out of them. Obviously, K3 has plenty of pants, since she didn't even know they were missing.

We grilled for the first time:

 I wanted to get a picture of them all cooked, but as soon as Mark put them on the table, everyone dove into them.

Work on the barn is going great! Party room & store are all sheet rocked, and almost ready to paint. Mark started spraying the ceiling in the barn. It's amazing how clean & fresh it looks with a coat of paint. It's awesome thinking about all the progress we made. It's all coming together just like we pictured it would, of course I have an amazing construction crew!

Raising the meat birds has been a challenge. On the warm days, they were overheating, so we stopped using the heat lamp. Well, Saturday night was in the 20's. Apparently, they were cold & clustered together. We lost ELEVEN! I am just blown away by how different these are then the egg layers. We made another pen, and divided them in half & gave them each a heat lamp. So far so good, all survived last night. They are now 3 weeks old.

and now it's Monday...back to the routine.

Vacation Week!

So, it's spring break from school. K1 so nicely shared her cold with me! I just have to say that I have had a rough few months. I got the flu which knocked me down for 4 days, terrible sinus cold that lasted a few days, 24 hour stomach bug, and now another cold with a nagging cough. UGH!...and I really don't have time to be sick! (not that anyone ever does!)

On a positive note I did finally get to cleaning the sap buckets, and the K's & I are on mission clean find our house. I have posted a list & everyone has to pick a job for the day.

Yesterday, was beautiful outside and my sister & I had a glass of wine on the deck. It's a tradition in memory of our Mother's death. Hard to believe it's been 10 years.

Today, I had lunch with my BFF from high school. Unfortunately, we only get together a few times a year. We only live 30 miles apart but jobs & family keep us busy. The best thing is that no matter how long it's been we just jump in where we left off, and we know that we will always be the best of friends.

Chicks are doing well. We've had a few bumps in the road, due to the crazy weather (warm/cold). We had a few warm days so we took out a heat light, than we had a cold night. We lost 3 due to crowding under the light to stay warm.

Mark & crew are doing a fab job on the barn, with any luck at all we will be painting this weekend. OPENING CELEBRATION on June 22!!!

Hoping for sunshine & getting lot's accomplished....

Spring chicks!

Meat birds arrived in the mail 106 of them!

  They lasted 2 days in my basement, then we could smell them throughout the house, so we moved them to the barn. It was a little chilly (When is it going to warm up???), but we had two heat lights & a small heater. Boy, solar would be great! I'm sure the electric bill will be up this month.They are a week old today & doing great. We only lost 3.They are really cute.

We moved our layers to a new spot in the field & they are very happily forging, giving us delicious, healthy eggs. Which we are getting 2 dozen a day, so we always have eggs for sale :)

I wish I could say we had all the sugaring equipment cleaned, but we still have 100 buckets to wash. My excuse has been it's been too cold, or I've been too busy. Defiantly, HAVE to clean them soon. I do have next week off, so hopefully I get lots done.  

Fed my 2 bottle lambs the last of the powdered milk. They still come running up to me crying & I feel bad, so i try to avoid them :(

I have finally launched my website, after many frustrating hours building it. www.triplekfarm.com. I would love your feedback!

Mark & crew have done lots of work on the barn (....there's still TONS to be done).It's looking GREAT!!! I am super excited about our grand opening on June 22. 

P.S. If you haven't already, like us on our Triple K Farm facebook page.