Stretchin' out

Last night, I went into Samuel's room to feed him his bedtime bottle and this is how I found him...

Chicks on pasture

After 2 weeks in the brooder house, it's time for our chicks to go on pasture.  Here they're being transferred into crates for their short drive out to the pasture.

This move is a little confusing to the chicks, so we move them very slowly and in small batches to minimize their stress.

They'll live out the rest of their 8 week life running around and eating fresh grass each day.  It's always so fun to watch chicks when you put them on the grass - the way they carefully walk on it trying to figure out what it is and how quickly they figure out that it's edible.  This step from brooder to pasture always confirms for me that this is the way they are supposed to live.

And, they're in!  This is their new home for the next 6 weeks.

Here are the birds that feed America.  Now, if we could just get the country to stop eating birds that are raised in commercial facilities that are treated horribly and injected with so much growth hormones and antibiotics that are making us ill.



A lot of people say, at $3+ per pound, we can't afford to eat organic, pastured foods.  We say, HOGWASH!  The money is being spent in the long run.  It's being spent in medicines, doctor visits and hospital bills.  So, one has to decided: 1) spend more money upfront on good natural food and have little or no medical bills or 2) continue to eat chemical laden industrial meat that's cheap, but continue to have to see a doctor for all your ailments.

In our family, since switching to organic, pastured foods a few years ago, we have yet to see a doctor.  Yep, you heard right.  We have had no ailments what-so-ever, beyond a common cold or a pulled muscle.  That is proof enough to us that what we do has a huge impact on our well being.

You need to decide for your family.  Would you rather eat from a commercial chicken facility where they're so cramped and so ill from joint and respiratory problems, they can't take more than a few steps...

Or from here; with sunshine, fresh grass, non-medicated grains and treated as an animal versus a dollar sign...

Ewes & Lambs

The delivery of our sheep went great. Three ewes had 2 babies each a little over a week ago.  The 4th ewe had her babies just the day before they arrived.  Since these lambs are so tiny, we have them and mama in the barn in a stall to keep them out of the direct weather and for some added protection. They'll join the rest of the gang pretty soon.

The others are out on the front pasture in a temporary enclosure.  Dan has electric netting on the way so he can give them a permanent home.

 Everyone seems to be adjusting to their new home well so far.  We ran to the feed store to get them some grains as a treat and a mineral block for them to lick on.  They devoured their treats.  Maybe this will make them more comfortable around us sooner?

All of the mama's are very protective of their babies.  When we come a little closer than they'd like, they start pushing their babies behind them.  It's amazing that mama's of all species have this same instinct.

Sheep coming.......

We have a small flock of sheep being delivered in about an hour.  Four mama's and 8 babies, 2 of which were just born yesterday!

Pictures to come.........

First mow

Dan was outside enjoying the nice weather and tackling the first mow of the season.  Good thing he likes mowing because we have a lot of yard and a long season to go.

Sock monkeys are funny

Samuel's favorite crib toy is a giant sock monkey.  After his naps, he'll lay in his crib for up to an hour sometimes happily playing with sock monkey.  After this particular nap, he was in an exceptionally good mood - chewing on sock monkey's tail and playing with the slats of his crib with his feet.  Life is good.

Burnin'

A good portion of Dan's time is spent tending to pasture. Fixing fences in pastures, mowing pastures, removing logs, rocks and stumps from pastures. The previous owners only had a couple of horses and didn't use most of the pasture for grazing, so it needs an extreme cleanup. Dan has been removing rocks and stumps so he doesn't have any obstacles while brush-hogging the gazillion red cedars and thorn bushes (mostly blackberry and multi-flora rose). And he's been cutting scrappy trees and making large burn piles - about 40 of them all over the property. The problem is that we had such a wet winter, the wood is just now dry enough to burn. Which is what we did Saturday morning. Here you can see a couple piles burning and many more in the background ready to be lit.

Dan lit about 8 piles on fire and with a hoe managed the edges so our whole pasture didn't catch fire. Ideally you want it to spread a little... burning off the old growth is a great way to let spring grasses come in. You just have to be careful that you don't start more than you can handle in the event the wind picks up.



This shot was taken from the pasture looking up towards the house. It's not really as close to the house as it looks.




Here's one of our pastures that is finally greening up. It doesn't have anything to do with burnin' at all. Isn't it pretty though?




One hot stump. If you look close, you can see flames deep in the stump and some cool looking smoke rolling out.

Burnin'

A good portion of Dan's time is spent tending to pasture.  Fixing fences in pastures, mowing pastures, removing logs, rocks and stumps from pastures.  The previous owners only had a couple of horses and didn't use most of the pasture for grazing, so it needs to be tidied up.  Dan has been removing rocks and stumps so he doesn't have any obstacles while brush-hogging.  And he's been cutting scrappy trees and making large burn piles - about 40 of them all over the property.  The problem is that we had such a wet winter, the wood is just now dry enough to burn. Which is what we did Saturday morning. 



Dan lit about 8 piles on fire and with a hoe managed the edges so our whole pasture won't catch fire.  Ideally you want it to spread a little... burning off the old grow is a great way to let spring grasses come in.  You just have to be carefully that you don't start more than you can handle in the even the wind picks up. 

Homemade ranch dressing/dip

Ranch Dressing / Dip

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon dried chives 1 teaspoon dried parsley 1 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.  It will look thin right after making, but will thicken up in refrigerator.

***For a thick dip, simply leave out the ½ cup of buttermilk***

TIP: If you don’t have buttermilk, put 1 ½ teaspoons of white vinegar in ½ cup of milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.  Viola… you have buttermilk.  If you don’t have vinegar to make buttermilk, you can make the dressing with plain milk.  It will be good, but will be missing its familiar tang.

Crib video

From the living room I could hear Samuel playing with the camera on his crib again. I grabbed my camera and shot this quick video of him in action...

4 and 1000 blackbirds sitting in a tree

I had WAY too many blackbirds to bake in a pie, so I had to rename the nursery rhyme.  This morning the weather started to get dark, clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up.  Right about that time, about a thousand blackbirds landed in the back yard.  Samuel was eating breakfast and stopped mid-bite to stare at the birds fluttering around outside.  After dining from our bird feeder, they all swarmed up into the trees like a giant school of fish......

First teething biscuit

Hmm, what is this?  I'll just give it a taste.

Oh yeah, I like it all right!

Hey, where'd my cookie go?!?

Do I have something on my face?

Uh, Mama, can I have another cookie, please?

Spring chicks

We just received our first batch of spring chicks - 150 of them to be exact. On Thursday Dan got the brooder house ready for them... put in a fresh layer of sawdust, got their warming hovers in place, and food and water ready. Friday morning the post office called bright an early to say they had arrived. After Samuel and I picked them up, I got them settled into their new home. Here are some pictures of their arrival...

This is how 150 chicks are packaged to go through the US Postal Service.

Here we are!  75 chicks per box.

Awe... aint I cute?

In our new home.  Learning to eat and drink in only a few minutes.

Chillaxin'

That's chilling and relaxing for you non-slang talkers.  I am, in general, not fond of slang, but I kind of like this one.  Samuel decided to take a break from playing to lean back and chillax.

Workin' hard

First of all, excuse my sloppy appearance.  And my sloppy desk.  Working from home does that to you sometimes.  Notice the coffee mug though... that is very important to my day.

Samuel likes to sit with me and play while I work.  And reach for whatever he can get his little hands on.  And type gibberish instant messages to my co-workers and press 'enter' before I can stop him.  He hardly ever just lays his head down to rest... he's constantly scanning his surroundings like an eagle.  But every once in a while he snuggles up out of the blue and decides a nap sounds really good...

Daddy was also working from home this day, so he was able to catch this rare event.