Lovin Life

Lovin Life
Chasity, Napoleon, Christian & Cleopatra

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Spring is here, way past time for an update

I started this and then saved it to come back to it, 2 seasons later..... I am just going to finish it up and start on the next one...... Lots of updates even since this one.


Normally I try to update this blog- well as it seems it has been a very short 4 months and I have yet to keep you updated on here. I do try harder to post on Facebook and Instagram, but this blog was created for our grandchildren to someday look back at the crazy things we done, they will not believe the stories we or even their parents tell them- I am sure of it.

So, at end of last year we had begun to lamb- we are officially done lambing season this year, and we survived. It was a lot of long sleepless nights taking turns to walk to the corral and check on mommas. We were blessed that we had no middle of the night births- only one that was late in evening and I ended up pulling that lamb as he was a record weight this year at 11lbs from Penny- we named him Titan. We lost one lamb from Butterscotch, we are not sure if she was premature according to our records or if it was first time momma issues, too cold or combination of all. Over all we did pretty good with all of the ups and downs of our first lambing season- most of all we are happy it is over. We are still busy with vaccines, weights and tags, paperwork to keep up with and soon we will be weaning. We have since weaned several with no real issues, we will be getting ready to see who is staying and who is going to either another farm or freezer camp.
We have more recently been busy with the idea of rotational grazing and providing the girls with more choices of pasture grasses and  grains in the form of annuals and perennials. The idea is great, but putting it on paper and then to see how it works in the pasture has been something short of a nightmare. We have ended up with 5 various sized paddocks- we tried to stay 100 ft x 100 ft, but we fell short on one and longer on another. We have been purchasing seeds and thus far we have the warm season grasses and crops ready to plant soon. We ended up with Sunn Hemp, Mancan Buckwheat, Iron & Clay Cowpeas, AU Grazer Sercia Lespedeza and a white clover. We haven't purchased all of cool season yet- but our plans are to add Chicory, Purple Top Turnips, Perennial Rye, Persist Orchardgrass, Birdsfoot Trefoil and white clover. On the ridge Hairy Vetech, oats and clover. We will see how this plan works out. We are hoping to break the worm cycle for allowing the pasture rotation, we will allow them access to a single paddock for seven days and then they are moved into another paddock, and so on. We do not unnecessarily treat for worms as we do fecal floats every six months but this allows another piece of mind in this department.

You have to look carefully to see the yellow connectors for the paddocks

Front of house and paddocks #1, #2 left to right. 
We have more chickens in the brooder box and Silkies have been introduced to the Rabbitat. More on that next time! Stay posted to see what happens next!