Tomorrow is July 1st!

Need followers and/or comments!! The challenge was 25 followers by July 1st, so I can draw a winner for yummy syrup.Come on it's easy!

Escapee of the week

Just like employee of the week, here @ Triple K Farm we have escapee of the week.Actually,this week we have two, since apparently the work as a team:

We moved the lambs onto the back lawn next to the house (sustainability blog). They seemed less than pleased (even though our lawn had a month of growth), and were quite vocal about it! They had been pastured next to the adult sheep, so I think they were a little upset about being taken away. The next morning I awoke to what I thought was someone knocking at the door, but the dogs weren't barking so must be I was dreaming...or it was the sheep!

You might be a redneck if..........

Later, when we came back from family dinner night the lambs were making quite the ruckus.Mark who always manages to beat me to bed, asks me what their problem was. I grab a flashlight & go check on them. Perfect, it's raining!, but I found the answer to all the noise. One section of the fence is almost down & one escaped. Now, he is pacing the fence wanting to join the others and they were all calling back & forth to each other. I get him in & then I am off to bed.

The next morning I awake to Mark telling me the lamb fence is down and he doesn't see them. Great! I look out the window, they are not by the other sheep, not in the garden ???? We throw on our boots get outside and....they are all in the pasture. 

A few hours later I am heading out the door to a doctors appointment. There are two loose sheep. I wake up K3, telling her I have an appointment and do not want to smell like wet sheep (which is as bad as wet dog!). While she is getting up I walk to the barn to get grain. The white one follows me so I open the gate & he goes in with the calf. K3 & I corner the black one & it plows through the fence, gets a little tangled, but we help it. K3 goes back to bed & I leave.

Hours later I come home. The two sheep are crying back & forth to each other. I feel bad, so I get the white one & put him back in with his friend. Seriously, five minutes later they are both out.

This is how the rest of my afternoon goes.K3 and I put them in, attempt to fix/barricade the hole, minutes later they are out. Finally, Mark gets home & we move them to a new pasture,and they are much happier....So Far!

Time to Join!

So, I posted this giveaway......but only have half as many followers as needed.I am hoping to draw  by July first. Please spread the word :)

http://triplekfarm.blogspot.com/2012/06/monthly-giveaway.html

Blog Worthy?

We were sitting on the porch Friday night with my brother & sister- in- law and I was telling them about how we tried to worm our steer Little Man. My sister- in- law asked if it was blog worthy.Hmmmm, I think it is. Thanks Gale!

Parasites are a huge problem. We have learned this the hard way by losing a sheep and close calls with some of our lambs last year.This winter Bubba (cow) got worms so bad he almost didn't make it. Now, we are on top of it & keep a close eye on everyone by doing routine worm checks.  

So, Little man looked a little thin and I said "I bet he has worms". Mark agreed & also thought we should move him to a pasture with more grass. Little Man is very skittish. He will come up to us for grain & we can lure him around with the grain bucket but very rarely can we touch him.We managed to lure him threw the gate & lock him in the 12 x 14 run in. This was no easy task because we had to slowly convince him to follow the grain threw the gate.While  keeping the horse & ram in.

We grab the only wormer we had which was a shot. OK, Mark thinks he can get close to him & stab it into his hip.There's only one problem, the shot is SQ.Meaning under the skin.I suggest we look for a different wormer & just send him into the new pasture for now. Mark says, "You give up to easy". Whatever, I am not going in with 700lbs of crazy cow!  Mark gets Little Man in a corner, puts his hand on him & he spins around. "You are going to get kicked. It's not worth it". Mark did get it under the skin once but Little Man spun around before he could squeeze any in. So far so good, at least Mark hasn't been kicked or run over yet.

So our barn is divided in two.This division is made with pallets (I keep saying one day we are going to build a pallet barn, because we are always using them to make pens & divide up spaces). The bottom 1/2 is pallets & the top 1/2 is chicken wire. We are on one side & the other side is where we just took Little Man from.

Well, Mark keeps trying....then Little Man decides he's had enough. He jumps up  & puts his front foot threw the chicken wire. Then to our amazement he keeps going, right threw the wire & over the top of the 4 foot pallet.Now he is back where he started & we just wasted at least  half hour.

This time we lure him back threw the gate & into the other pasture. A few days later I buy a wormer mixed in grain. We walk up to him & he eats it right up. Total time = 5 min. & zero chance of bodily harm.

Likes / Dislikes of Farming

Just like everything in life there are things we like & things we don't. Farming is no exception. So here is my list:

Likes (actually Loves):

1) Babies of all shapes & sizes! (I also love human babies) Nothing is cuter than woolly lambs & fuzzy chicks! It's great to see the mama's caring for their babies (lambing blog soon).

2) Harvest & providing for ourselves. Nothing beats fresh vegetables from the garden - think corn on the cob, fresh green beans & cukes...oh the list goes on. Anyone hungry? How about a shelf full of  maple syrup, jams, and spaghetti sauce. Can't forget the freezer full of pasture raised pork & beef. Breakfast would not be the same without eggs from K3's Koop!

3) Starting my morning on the porch with Mark, coffee, and watching all the animals. Ending the day with a drink in our hand in the same place, doing the same thing.

Dislikes:

1) Death - Unfortunately  it comes with the territory. We've lost many chickens, several sheep, and one horse. Some are easier than others.

2) Escapees - (remember the pig & horse blog). Escapees always run for the road or chow down in the garden. Actually, Anna (sheep) has been banned to the barn today because she has chosen not to stay in the fence and she has a fondness for broccoli which I have already replanted once thanks to her.

3) Poison Ivy - as I am writing this it is vivid in my mind, due to the fact that I have poison ivy. That I got as a bonus for weed whacking the fence line to keep the sheep from escaping into my garden.

Some Days I Like / Some Days I Dislike

1) Working outside or in the barn - I love being outside or going to the barn.... The exception (in my book) is when it is over 80 degrees or under 10 degrees. Then I either want to be in my pool with a cold drink in my hand or snug in the house, wrapped in a blanket, with scented candles burning.

2) Working together - Some days it's great, but others.....warning do not come by if Mark & I are fixing fence or we are making the K's help with firewood. It can get ugly!

3) Having a Farm as our home - I love being & working at home....but we can never leave. Some days the to do list is just too long and overnights are next to impossible.

Well, there you have it! All thing considered, to Mark & I it is definitely worth it. Farming is something we love and have dreams of doing much more. The K's don't agree but that's pretty typical of teenagers.We are sure someday they will appreciate it...

Monthly Giveaway

So I"m new to blogging and I am looking for more followers.  Since we have a fantastic farm and lots of local products, I am going to giveaway a product each month.
First challenge is to get at least 25 followers.  So to be entered you need to
1. become a follower and leave me a comment saying you are a follower
2. If share with a friend and they become a follower, leave me another message and you'll get entered again
*For those who don't know how to be a follower, click on the to be a follower and you'll have to create an account.  It's easy!
I am hoping to have 25 followers by July 1 and my giveaway will be a half gallon of yummy VT maple syrup.

Where the syrup starts

Famous Pig Story

Famous Pig Story!

We said we were never going to get pigs but....we did! We bought  two baby piglets & put them in a pen in the barn. An hour later K3 goes to check them & they had dug their way out & were in front of the barn. No problem...or so we thought. We corner them & one gets away. All our other animals never stray too far from each other, so I turned around expecting her to be standing a short distance away. Not so! This piglet was running as fast as she could, straight into the tall grass in the field behind our house. There was no way I could catch her.

All day & evening we kept looking for her. We had friends over for a bon fire. My friends & I, complete with wineglasses in hand searched the field in the dark with flash lights for the missing piglet. No luck, although C.W. did get a tick as a reward for her effort! One A.M. we spot her next to the barn where the other piglet is. We are shocked she found her way back, but as soon as she saw us she disappeared into the darkness. Guess we'll see if she makes it through the night.

The next morning she is back! We put the other piglet in a cage in the middle of the coral as bait. Doesn't work. We keep spotting her in the meadow beside the house. We try EVERYTHING! Luring her with food, trying to corner her, even trying to outrun her on foot and with the four- wheeler. For having such short legs...she sure could run! Our neighbors watched this show. To this day they still bring this up & how comical we looked. This goes on all day.

This happens to be the day that K3's field hockey team comes over for a barbeque at our house. The two coaches & a few Mom's walk through the woods with me trying to catch that speedy piglet. Mark get's a call to go pick up the beef calves (remember  in the cow blog, I said there was more!). He comes home with the drugged calves & proceeds to castrate the bull causing him to  bellow & thrash inside the trailer. Those girls got quite a lesson in farming between the calves & pig chasing! K2 (the non farmer) is mortified by all this and thankful it was not the day her team was here.

Now it is night....Still no piglet. K3 is upset that we have given up. We explain to her that we have tried everything we could think of. We are exhausted! We go inside. Now it's 10 & I am standing at the sink doing dishes. I hear a pig squealing in the woods. I get Mark out of bed & we go onto the porch & listen to the horrible squealing. Obviously, something got our piglet. K3 wants to go save it. We tell her it is too late. K3 curls up in a ball on the floor, crying. We feel awful. Then to our amazement we see the piglet running down the driveway into the barn. We quickly throw on our boots & run outside. Mark in his boxers and K3 & I in our jammies. The piglet has climbed up a stack of bales. I blind her with the flashlight & Mark grabs her by the leg. WE GOT HER! She is covered in blood (think of the expression bleed like a stuck pig).We clean her up & she has several puncture wounds. Whatever found her in the woods bit her around the neck, but somehow she managed to escape.  We clean her up, apply ointment, and put her back in with the other lonely piglet. Surprisingly,  the next morning we can hardly see her wounds. It was amazing how quickly they healed. Of course, we named her Lucky!                 

Cows

Cows

Winter of 2010 we got Little Man, a Ayrshire steer. Mark though that he would be a good friend for our horse Dora (and eventually a nice addition to our freezer). I reminded him that Dora hated cows. Once again he doesn't believe me....

So we put him in with Dora, with him on a halter so we can pull him out if needed. Dora snorts & squeals...after about half an hour Mark thinks it will be fine HA! He lets Little Man loose & Dora pins him in a corner...biting, kicking, squealing (neither one of us want to get in the middle of that), but it was Mark's idea so he rescues the steer & follows my initial recommendation and puts him in a separate pen.

Fast-forward to fall 2011. Mark works out a great deal to get two young Herford Heifers. The only problem is they are WILD!!! The owner suggest we leave our trailer there and when he has two in the trailer he will call us. Sounds great....two months later he has a bull...Hmmmm not exactly what we were thinking but we go look. In our trailer is a very mad 800lb bull. He is thrashing our trailer. I look at Mark and say "NO WAY", and for once he agrees with me! A few weeks later he calls to tell us that he has two calves that he tranquilized and has on our trailer. Perfect..except one is a bull...whatever after 3 months of waiting we will take what we can get. We welcome home Bubba & Bailey. (more to follow about the day we brought them home on the pig blog)

P.S. I do have to give Mark a little bit of credit....eventually Dora accepted the cows...She now lives with Little Man & our ram Dave...we call them the Misfits!!!

Carter welcoming our newest calf. K3 named him Little MJ

Chickens

                                                 Chickens!

Spring of 2010 we bought K3 sixteen cute & fuzzy baby chicks.

 Here was the dilemma...I must confess I was terrified of chickens, well actually anything with wings & a beak! I blame it all my childhood...

Chris & I got paid a whopping $5 a week to do calf chores. Not only did we struggle with the five gallon buckets of milk, but we had to fend off the vicious  Banty chickens. We  worried about the protective mother hens. We worried about the chicken that  laid in the grain barrel, so that when we went to feed the calves grain they flew up in our faces, and even though I can't remember ever being pecked, Chris & I  were traumatized for life....

So, here  we are with these chicks. I agreed to them because I really wanted to be more sustainable. Chickens provide fresh vitamin rich eggs, they eat ticks & bugs,  and chickens are a great way to recycle food. I feed them our leftovers & scraps and in return they give me delicious eggs. Not to mention that they have provided K3 with a job. She is responsible for her chickens & sells her eggs.

Well, I have gotten over my chicken fear, but I never held any of the baby chicks. The first time one got out and  no one was home I had to get over my fear and chase it back. I will admit that first year I screamed quite a bit whenever they flew around the coop (while Mark laughed at me), but I have gradually overcome my fears. I have  picked them up only a few times in the two years we've had them, but only when absolutely necessary...like when my preschool class came and wanted to pet a chicken. How could I refuse those sweet faces!

I will say the hens are really fun to watch. Waddling around chasing bugs or running as fast as they can when I call  to them so I can feed them leftovers. I do  have another confession to make...I actually do enjoy having them.....shhh don't tell!!

                                                           K3's Koop

Our Girls live in Luxury thanks to Mark!

Seriously, You Can't Make This Stuff Up (sheep, part 2)

(what I saw out my kitchen window)

Mark decided that a round bale would be a good idea. He brought it into the corral & placed it so the rain would not get inside. As you can see, we had the horses & sheep together. Instantly, I tell him it seems tippy, so he adjusts it. The day progresses & I see that Dee (horse) likes to rub against it to itching herself causing the bale to wiggle. Again, I tell Mark this seems like a really bad idea and want him to move the bale. I am worried it could tip over onto one of the sheep. He assures me it will be fine.

A few days later I am @ the kitchen window & watch Dee tip the bale over, so I run outside to check the sheep. As I am running & scanning the corral, I realize Addison is missing. She is a sweet little lamb that we bought for K3's show sheep. I start screaming for help. I run over & can see her feet sticking out. K2 runs out bare foot. Her & I start pushing on the bale, but it doesn't budge. Mark runs out & jumps over the fence losing his sandals. He pushes on the bale, we start digging from the bottom, and finally we pull Addison out. She is laying with her tongue sticking out. I am sure she is dead. Well, I never knew I had the Q family Canadian temper until that day. I start yelling & swearing (even the f word!). "I ---- told you this was going to --- happen... you never --- listen to me... of course it had to be our best sheep ...." Mark just stood there with his head hanging not saying a word until I was done, and then he quietly apologized. He felt terrible! Well, turns out Addison is not dead...after she laid there for a minutes with the wind knocked out of her she slowly got up and walked away. She survived her near death experience & K3 has shown her for the last 2 yrs. Last year at Field Days she was the champion Romney natural colored ewe and in the top 3 for all breeds Champion Ewe. She is still a flock favorite!!