Sensitive Boys

 Here is my favorite picture of Radar (& K3). When we first got him he was scared of Everything! Walking him to the pasture was a challenge. He is much stronger than he looks. The first time we led him, he dragged Mark. Now we can lead him easily. If there's something new like a tractor or puddle in his path, he will hesitate but go- no problem. On Sunday, K1 and Jakob went to get in Radar & Griz (the pony). They couldn't catch them. Typically, they come right up to Mark & I. K1 came back in the barn & Travis went out to help them. He caught Radar, but he took off and dragged Travis in the mud. So, I go out there. I try treats, talking to him, catch the pony, but nothing works. He's afraid. He will very hesitantly take the treat from my hand,but when I reach for his halter he runs away. We go back in the barn. Wait a few minutes & finish chores than Mark & I go out. Mark catches him. This is the normal routine (Mark takes him & I lead Griz) and what he is comfortable with. Note to self - no one else tries to catch Radar. This whole ordeal took about 1/2 hour extra time.

Then we gather sap & boil. We ended up making a gallon of Golden Delicate aka Fancy! We know it's going to be cold, so Mark wants to drain the pan in the morning. We go in the house & Mark tries his little water pump to see if it works. I open the door to let in the dogs, just as he tries the pump. Carter hears the noise & runs. Here's the deal with Carter.Several years ago we replaced our roof. The sound of the air compressor & the banging on the roof terrified him. Now,whenever the air compressor runs he hides, typically in a closet, under the desk, or in the barn if he is outside. Apparently, this sounded like the compressor. We take a shower & I try to call in Carter. Thinking it's been 1/2 an hour he should be ready. Nope! I ask K1 to go get him, since she is dressed. After 10 minutes I get dressed & go out. He is hiding under the sap tank at the sugar house. We try treats, if we grab his collar he frantically pulls away. I don't want to traumatize him, plus he's 90 pounds & that's a long way to drag him to the house. We use the other dogs as bait  "Miley your a good girl! " and feed her treats. Any other time we give the other dogs attention he run right over to steel some for himself. He always comes when called, except when he is scared. I finally start running around the wood pile, shaking the treats, and calling to Miley & Carter. This is 10 at night, I'm in my pj's, running around like an idiot.He follows us to the house. Miley & I run up the stairs & he runs back to the sugar shack. UGH! We give up & go to bed. Miley keeps pacing, she doesn't like Carter outside.  I wake up at midnight & go out to get him. He comes, when I call him, but hides under the steps. Well, at least were closer! I get a leftover piece of pizza. I feed him little pieces & lure him up the steps, than he turns around & hides underneath. I try several times. Finally, I wake up Mark. He grumbles, swears, and grumpily gets up and dressed. We go outside and he squats down & sweetly talks to Cater. Oh, I love this man and his big heart! I lure Carter up the stairs with the pizza, and when he gets to the top, I grab his collar. Mark is behind him and pushes him. We get him in the DOOR! He's fine,  lays down & doesn't go outside until noon on Monday. We will never run a pump in the house again!

Feels like spring

We tapped our trees on the sap line this week. It was kinda chilly. We brought the dogs who love the woods. JD had a blast running around until he got tired. He would dig in the snow, lay down, curl up tight in a ball, hide his nose, shiver, than jump up and try again. After a few minutes I told Mark we had to bring him home. The dogs cuddled up for a nap for the rest of the day...not us, we went back and finished tapping! We added on to the main line, so now we have about 140 taps on the line.

All three dogs in the truck

We did boil Friday and Saturday night, about 250 gallons of sap, but still no syrup. just sweetin' the pan.  It should be running today, it feels like spring out. Maybe syrup tonight? After today it's going to get cold again, for about a week.I guess this is just a little spring tease. After this cold spell we will tap our buckets and fingers crossed it will be officially sugaring season.

Here's Mark's babies...we have quite the collection of bull calves. They aren't worth any money when they are newborns, so Farmers keep calling Mark & giving him "free" calves. He can't say no...so we are buying lots of milk re placer and feeding the calves takes longer than taking care of all the other animals.

Joys of Farming

So we got some snow on Valentines day. The dogs like to play in it, but the chickens hate it! I am just done with winter, snow & cold. We've also had some below zero nights. YUCK! I want NEED Spring!

On Saturday, we realized the freezer part of the refrigerator in the store broke. Even though it's really small, we had it packed with meat = a $310 dollar loss. Not fun!

We are anxiously awaiting sugaring season. Today, we are were going to tap our lines, hoping to get the first run this week. Mark filled our gathering tank with water & hitched the trailer to his tractor, so K3 & I could clean the sap tank in the woods, while he and K3's boyfriend tapped the lines. We are all ready, dogs can't wait to run @ Grandpa's, and the tractor dies. Which means he is trying to fix it while we wait.The day is flying by, looking like we aren't going to tap today. These are just the joys hardships of farming.

Here's some pics from the week:

Poor Miley, her cone is like a shovel in the snow.

On chicken was brave.

This is 5 minutes after I mopped. Looks great, doesn't it?

JD is growing. This is his puppy sweater, looks like a cap on him now.
I had to buy him a new collar, because he outgrew the one I got him a month ago. His feet are giant. We can hear him coming in any room, just by the noise his big paws make.

Sheep are getting big with lambs!

K1 has been working with her horse. We had to sedate him to get him home when we bought him.Now he walks right on.  

100th post....

This is my 100th blog post, so I looked back at my first post and decided to re post it. This was written  5/8/12. 

Why We Want To Farm

For Mark & I it began when we were kids. Mark spent his childhood playing with toy tractors, playing @ Wilbur’s farm, and knowing he wanted to be a farmer. I have happy memories playing @ my brother’s farm with Christa, and @ the LeRoy’s farm.

We grew up and both of us worked on my brother’s farm. I milked cows for ten years and Mark worked there for twelve. Then we moved on for jobs with better pay & better hours.

In 2009, I took a class on sustainability @ CCV taught by an amazing professor (J. Williams), who opened my eyes to the problems with our food system. I watched Food Inc, read books by Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan, and Barbra Kingsolver. I realized there are many ways to farm, other than the traditional dairy farm which Mark & I were so familiar with.

So, here we are....trying to make something of Triple K Farm (named after our three daughters). Our goal is to provide a healthy, happy, and sustainable quality of life for ourselves, our animals, and hopefully others.

We currently sell hay, maple syrup, lamb, and K3 sells eggs. We have hopes for much more in the future. Stay tuned...

I remember writing this post. We were trying to find a way to make our farm work. We were definitely discourage.We had a plan and knew what we wanted to do, but no land or barn to make it happen. Every option we tried to pursue ended up not working out. Mark desperately wanted to farm on the Simonds homestead, but that wasn't an option. We found a small farm in Leicester, but when we went to the bank it was just a little too expensive. Then we found a field for sale in Whiting, but that sold too quickly. We had thought of asking Leo & Arlene about renting, but thought for sure they would think we were crazy & shoot down the idea like everyone else. I remember sitting at the table with Mark and we made the decision that if we couldn't make this happen in 2013 than we were done. We were tired of being half way in the game. In or out!  Well, we asked Leo & Arlene and they agreed! Not only do they allow us to rent the barn, but help us in lots of little ways. So here we are Livin' the dream!

I hope you all enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.I just have to document this crazy life we lead somehow, and I may as well share with others. So raise your glass, to another hundred blogs. Cheers!

Been awhile.....

Nothing exciting happening here. Last weekend we cut firewood both days. On Saturday K2 & her boyfriend helped with a load, and on Sunday K3 & her friend helped with another load. We did 4 loads total last weekend. I was so tired. I'm pretty strong - I carry buckets & bales twice a day, and clean stalls, but 2 long days of wood & my arms were so sore. I was going to blog on Saturday night but I didn't want to use my arms! 

K3 and her Best Bud - K5

Yesterday was a snow day & my niece came over to watch horse movies.  We snuggled on the couch and watched Flika (my favorite horse movie, maybe because it has Tim McGraw in it!)

K1 & her little cousin

On Tuesday we noticed Miley was limping. We found she had cut her leg. So we bandaged it & put on her cone so she can't rip it open. This is what she did last year & ended up with stitches. I was really glad we saved her cone.

Poor pitiful Miley

JD enjoying the sun.

Poor JD doesn't fit in his basket

Today I updated our website www.triplekfarm.com. Check it out!