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!