Mama Tired

The last 3 weeks have been exhausting for me. Literally. Exhausting.

Aside from the typical spring farm chores, I have spent a good deal of my energy cleaning up the front porch and attempting to sort fiber projects.

The porch is clean and ready for some serious and not so serious conversations and board games and the occasional reminiscing of happy memories.

New laying hens are officially moved into the egg mobile and the meat chicks are about to move to pasture.

We have cows happily grazing long blades of grass, a summer pasture area planted and wildflowers in the ground for the honey bees.

Did I mention that I am exhausted? This sweet baby has not been sleeping well which means I don't sleep hardly at all. I am typically a very upbeat and optimistic person but there is no tired like mama tired.

Mama tired makes you see your home as total disarray and forces you to question your very being. Isolation makes it all seem worse too. Why am I doing this again? What was the point of farming?

(sigh)

Mama tired. It literally drains the life and motivation from you. 

There was a short break in the mama tired yesterday evening. It was a reminder to "hang on."

There was, after a few days of heavy rain, a beautiful reminder that the sun will come out and the rain will dry up.

Why am I doing all of this?

Maybe because this boy and his siblings love it and need it. Maybe because being able to walk the land and raise animals is something we all need, really.

For just a few minutes the mama tired left me and I was able to appreciate the joy and beauty of family and farm.

Perhaps like me you are frustrated and weepy and ready to quit. Perhaps you too are exhausted. 

Mama tired.

Go ahead and cry and validate your sorrow, frustration and pain. You ARE exhausted. 

This life is not easy.

This life, however, is worth it.

Hang on.

Peace,

Sami

Navi

We got a new critter last week.

Meet Navi.

Willow's pet bunny dies last year and she has missed having a soft lovie in her arms.

We searched and found a Holland Lop breeder close by, and Willow started earning and saving her money.

She is a perfectly sweet bunny.

Everyone loved bringing her home.

Willow loves having a new soft friend to cuddle.

Happy Thursday Ya'll!

Spring Doozy

The only thing I dislike about spring are the wild storms that come through. Last night we had a doozy blow in, and although there were no tornados, it left its fair share of damage.

 We stood on the porch watching the chicken tractor closely because we had 45 pullets in it when we heard a loud crash.
This huge tree fell on the metal carport we use to park the tractor.

This morning I had a chance to assess the damage. The tractor seems fine but the carport is trashed.

I have already had a conversation with my insurance agent.

The tree fell just enough to damage our wooden storage shed too. 

I know we are actually lucky that no people were hurt and that we never lost our power. 

Now to do chores and see how best to repair the chicken tractor.

I really thought it was going to blow away during the storm. I am grateful it did not, but I do need to repair it the best I can today.

Hoping everyone is safe after last night's spring doozy!

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Doing the Best I Can

If I was a busy person a year ago I can honestly say that I feel busier these days but with less to show for it, except this little guy counts for 99% of my time.

          *Ace is wearing a sweet beanie knitted by my good friend Martha. It's made from angora yarn she spun from her bunnies.*

I had honestly forgotten how much time babies consume, and this guy is no different. Warm weather is on its way though and Baby Bear loves to be outside. The last 2 weeks have been busy here as we start the post winter, clean the crap from the yard and get ready for baby animals process.

We sent the remaining of our pigs to process and then started the much needed clean up of fencing. These pigs challenged fencing every single day. We had a mess of barbed wire and pallets. 

Once the pigs left we spent a day pulling up electric wire fencing from the woods and pulling up pallets. We plan to clean it all up and allow it to recover. We will not run pigs again until fall so that will give it time to recover and us time to run new electric wire.

We did have sad news when we discovered a heifer, who was due in April, had miscarried her calf.

Of course these things always happen in the dark, so finding her dead baby was nearly impossible. We discovered the heifer, Chance, with membranes dangling when we took hay out for the cows. 

Because I feared she might have a calf inside we called the vet, only the vet was on vacation. I was able to call another vet out and he confirmed she had miscarried. 

We gave her a shot of lutalyse to try and get the membranes expelled.

I was disappointed that we did not get a live calf but happy Chance was okay.

The next day we did find her dead fetus in the 20 acre field we rent. On the upside, she is milking well.

Her membranes finally expelled after 5 very smelly days.

The day after Chance lost her calf I woke up and decided to move Molly closer to the house. Molly was due any day and I was worried she might suffer same fate as Chance. 

I was happy to walk out and find Molly had calved during the early morning hours. She had a healthy bull calf, a wagyu cross, at her side.

We did move them both closer to the house, but Molly has been a great mama cow and her calf is doing great.

This is the first official start to my beef herd.

Between these happenings we had two birthdays to celebrate!

Quinn turned 19 years old! 

Indiana turned 17 years old!

We celebrated with a huge family dinner/party.

This week I am finally catching up and taking a deep breath. I am getting our lives back on a routine, no thanks to the daylight savings time change, and I actually went grocery shopping yesterday.

I cleaned out my fridge and was feeling good about my day yesterday. Have you ever just really felt like you had it all together as a mom? That was me yesterday......until this happened.

That is Zeb wearing overalls that are about 3 sizes too small. He refused to take them off too. 

When my girls were all little I was really good about keeping their clothes folded and tucked neatly in their drawers, and I was always good about switching out clothes seasonally and taking out clothes they had outgrown.

I don't know what happened when I had the boys. I honestly try not to enter their rooms for fear I will see something that needs purging or cleaning. Apparently I am past due needing to remove clothes they have outgrown.

Mom fail.

I redeemed myself by ordering both boys a new pair of overalls though.

Thank you Amazon Prime.

                                                     *Valentine soaking up some sun*

                                                   

It has been freezing cold here the last few days, but I am confident spring warmth will return soon, hopefully, because we are very low on hay. 

The cows are starting to shed their winter coats and the grass is really trying to grow.

Just a few more good days working outside and I think the yard will look decent again :-)

Now to spend the remainder of my day tending to this guy.

Happy Thursday Ya'll!!

Sami

Bee Prep

Monday was the perfect weather for some outside work that needed to be completed.

I have three packages of honey bees arriving from a local beekeeper in April. I have plenty of equipment but, like everything on a farm, they needed some upkeep before the bees arrive.

Since I am including honeybees in my bug curriculum this year for the younger kids and because I want the kids to grow up with a strong knowledge of beekeeping, I enlisted their help with equipment preparations.

The boxes all needed a good scraping and cleaning up and a fresh coat of paint.

I have always used white paint in the past, but the children and I thought this was a year for color.

The boys put on large, old shirts to protect their nicer clothes and went to town painting the boxes.

Earlier in the day we went to a local store and I let them pick out 3 colors.

It was all fun and games until Luna and Kid starting chasing each other. Luna got green paint on her head and backside. We rinsed it off and then she rolled in dirt. Dogs!

It was a great day for the baby to be outside too. He did nap between tasks :-) Actually the sunshine was a great immune system booster for everyone.

The next day we gathered the equipment, added new frames, and set up our new bee yard near the blueberry bushes.

This are will be expanded some, and we will be fencing it with a permanent fence to keep the cows out.  

All of the kids help set the hives up and I was happy to be working outside with my crew.

Today we gathered all of the bee suits and washed them. This weekend I will gather and organize gloves and veils.  I do need to order some new gloves for the boys still.

We also decided to set up 2 nuts around the property in hopes of attracting a swarm. We bought a paste called Bee Charmer as a lure for the frames. Every day the boys go check the "bee traps" in hopes that we get a swarm. I really hope we do because it would thrill the kids to watch! IO am thinking n early spring might set off early swarms. It was a nice 77 degrees today!

Finally, the German Shepherd baby starts her obedience training in a week. I am excited to see where this dog goes in life. For now, she is the best companion a baby could ask for :-)

Happy Friday Ya'l!!

Shearing Day

Yesterday we had the shearing guy come over. Because my sheep are long wool sheep, they must be sheared two times a year.

 With spring weather almost everyday, the sheep were really needing to have their long coats of wool removed. While we have the sheep captured, I also use this as a time to trim their hooves. Everything went quite smoothly.

Even Mary, despite her leg injury, did quite well being sheared. Her wound is healing up nicely and is almost completely closed up now.
The sheep always look kind of funny after having so much wool sheared off. I plan to send some wool to a processor to be spun into lace weight yarn and some into worsted weight.

After a full day outside with sheep, we decided to have a little back yard fire and dinner. Devin surprised us by getting food at the store, and he splurged and bought the kids each a soda.

Despite the sad looking face, Duke even enjoyed himself. He just spent a good amount of time lounging in a cool dirt spot.

My new project now is to move my fiber studio. Devin has a workout room and we have decided to switch rooms. Today I spent some time clearing everything out of my studio room so he can get some heavy duty weight room flooring put down. Once we get his weights out of his current room and into his new space, I will paint the room and fix it up for my sewing and fiber.

I came across a few items that I made and never used as gifts, as I had intended. I think we do a couple of give aways next week and find these items a new home. Stayed tuned!

Happy Thursday Ya'll!!

Chance

The days just get busier and busier!
This weekend we had perfect weather for working outdoors, so we decided to tackle the garden bed mess.

First we moved a raised bed to another spot, in order to make parking the tractor easier. Then Devin lifted all of the half barrel planters and dumped them into the raised bed. There was nice planting soil in the barrels and I am through with any large gardening. I will only be using my 3 raised beds and a few pots on my porch.

With the barrels gone and the beds cleaned up, it looks much nicer now. I may or may not plant many vegetables this year. Honestly I feel like I am at full capacity, as far as what I can do. I might plant some annual flowers and just patron a local farmer for vegetables.

I also finished class 3 of 4 of my Kid Embroidery Class. Rose did a fantastic job and will be hanging her embroidery art up on a wall...as soon as I can locate the picture nails.
This class was an embroidery of their handprint, a gift for Mother's Day.

When you get a call from a farmer friend wanting to sell a most beautiful and healthy heifer calf, you just say , "YES!"

We loaded her up into the back of our favorite stock trailer van and brought her home. She is a very healthy calf, born last November, and will make a fine milking cow one day.

She is the same age as our baby steer and she is happily out grazing the pasture with all of the other cows.

Saturday we burned her horns, a chore we always dread. It must be done however! Horns can be dangerous to not only other cows, but to any person who is milking and caring for the cows.

Of course this beautiful Jersey needed a name, so the kids all thought long and hard about what to name her. They decided to name her after the family cow in the show The Waltons.
They named her Chance.

Welcome to the farm Chance!!!!

Happy Monday Ya'll!!!

The Color Green

It is a glorious color!!!! Green means that winter is headed out and spring and summer are headed in!!! I love it!
Thankfully it arrived just in time, as my hay has run out!

We have been keeping all the livestock loose and free ranging so they can feast on the green. This also allows their regular paddocks to recover and grow some green.

The calves in particular love having the free space to socialize and graze.

Dandelions mean the bees have some food for their hive. Please don't spray these beauties with weed killer!

The hens are fenced up with the egg mobile again, well half are fenced up. It has been difficult rounding up and catching all of the free rangers, but Hilda has no problem crawling under the fence and socializing with the hens...or rather cleaning up feed from the ground.

It was perfect weather yesterday for a walk down the drive to collect special rocks and to hunt for wildflowers.

It will be time to shear the sheep this month and Whiskey Creek has quite a load of fleece! He spends most of the day in the shade and will be happy, I am sure, to get a hair cut.

I have been busy these last 2 weeks deep cleaning and de-cluttering each room and closet in the house. To say this was a major feat is an understatement!
All I have left to do is clean the porches outside and also do something with this eyesore of a garden.

Before dairy cows I had time to garden. I used 3 raised beds and these half barrels to grow quite a bit of flowers and food. Milking cows and making cheese have decreased my ability to garden and now this spot is an overgrown eye sore. I plan to clean this up and at least get some flowers planted, even annuals would be nice.
I will likely only keep a few half barrels for a couple of tomato plants and I will buy the rest of my summer bounty from local farmers.

My first thought on cleaning up these raised beds is to burn them. I might spread cardboard and shredded paper across them and light them up to burn the new growth of weeds. After they are scorched I will go to a local garden center and get some rich planting soil to add to the beds.

My meat chicks ship out Monday so I will spend some time this weekend getting brood boxes ready. The actual chicken tractors will need some repair, though, before we can get any birds out on pasture.

The cows have been using the tractors as scratching posts! The poor pens couldn't hold up to an 800 pound animal scratch so Devin will be busy fixing these the next couple of weeks.
I am impressed that the tractors held up so well this long. This will be the 4th year to use them, and remember they were built with mostly scraps we had lying around the property.

Green!!!! It is a glorious color and always was my favorite! Bye- Bye winter cold and hello warm sun!

Happy Spring Thursday Ya'll!!!!

Spring! and a Gift Card Winner

It's here!!!! I think spring has officially arrived! The ground is losing its drab brown color and turning green! Even the puppy, Delconno, is happy to see grass again!

 

 

My week of spring cleaning has kicked off and I hope to have a nice, organized home in a couple of weeks.

 

 



 

BUT, today is all about my Dog Fencing post and how successful ya'll made that post! Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who left a comment and/or shared the post on FB! It generated quite a bit of talk about fencing for dogs and I think most everyone who has used underground fencing found it to be effective.

 

 



I promised a drawing and a drawing I delivered!

Congratulations to the winner of the $50 Amamzon Gift Card : Ruth Ross!
Ruth doesn't have dogs, but she shared the info with her sister who owns sheep and Pyranees.

Ruth, I need you to email me within the next 24 hours at mybarefootfarm@catt.com to claim your gift!

Thank you again everyone who participated! Thank you also to Willow, my #4 child, for all of the pictures on the blog today!

I hope everyone is enjoying nice weather today and can get outside to soak up some sun!

Happy Spring Ya'll!