Sweet Sugar

Sugar is growing like a weed.
We are using a collar on her now,she seems to respect us when leading her,which makes the job a whole lot easier.
We will also be using a halter to break her.
I'm very pleased at how beautiful she is,such a kind temperament and beautiful face.
Thought I would share a few pictures of her from this morning.

Have a happy and safe New Year everyone!!!

much needed

I hope everyone had a great Holiday!
I know we sure did.
On Boxing day we had our annual dinner party,this year 37 guests were here to celebrate the holiday with us at the farm.
I made a tonne of food,ham from our Berks,baked potatoes,chili,meatballs,chicken Souvlaki,chicken wings,veggie and cheese trays, fish chowder to name a few and a large selection of desserts.
We had lots of left overs so I packed up some to take to my friend who has been very ill the past three years.
One of the greatest things we received as a gift was a much needed and wanted bucket milker for Ginger.
It came with all new fittings, a vacuum pump,two additional belly milkers and a collection tank.
We only have the one milk cow but the rest may come in handy if we decide to increase our herd.
On a sad note my dear Prince, my first sheep and sire to most of the lambs born here, has been quite ill.
I have been treating him and hoping he will soon recover, if he is not better by the end of the week a decision on quality of life will have to be made. He is my big baby and I hope he pulls through.
Prince has Arthritis and has had symptoms off and on since the spring,this is his worst yet.

I will keep you updated now that we have our connection back up,the last snow storm knocked out our internet for the past few days.

Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!!!!

When puppies grow up to fast

Thought I would share a few pictures of my boy Blue.
He turned 10 months old last week,tipping the scales at over 150lbs.
Will he ever stop growing?
Blue is a very special boy,he is Livestock Guardian Dog. Blue protects our farm from intruders such as coyotes,dogs,fox etc.

Storm Damage in the Annapolis Valley

Found this thought I would share,this is just the tip of the iceberg,far more damage was done.Many barns were lost,there are still people without power..

A major storm hit

We had a major storm that has left us without power for a few days.
I cant believe the damage done in such a short time.
We lost some of the front wall in the barn and at least 50 trees.
The wind was 140kms/hr.
A few local barns were flattened,telephone poles snapped in half and stop lights sent flying.
I'm so thankful all my critters are safe and building are standing.
The wind was so powerful the bed would shake when the wind blew.
Another big clean up this time it will take weeks.

Barn clean out

This is a picture from 1951. The lady is the previous owner of the farm standing with her horse Prince.
The barn on the far left is the barn we still use today,the barn on the right is no longer there.


Yesterday was our big barn clean out.
This is a BIG job!
Every few months we clean out the sheep,we like to use the deep bed method,it works good for us.
The morning started off with a couple of cups of strong coffee to get ready for the job.
We had to take everything out of the barn,horse tack,feed storage,medications,rakes,pitch forks everything.
Then we dismantle the sheep pens which run up the left side of the barn.
Hubby used his excavator to remove the bedding and manure.
Our barn has a 16' wide roll up door,he can drive right in and pull the manure pack out.
This is such a big job,not all is done with a machine. You have to shovel in the tight areas (this can be allot of shoveling!) and then sweeping.
Next disinfect and rinse and build new pens.
We had friends show up who helped in building the new pens for the sheep.
The only thing that does not get replaced is the horse stalls,every other pen gets built new every 4 months give or take.
We are still not done,we have yet to build a new box stall for Ginger and one for Sugar.
They are in the cow barn now but she moves into the main barn for the winter.
I love having everything fresh and new,our barn is very old,built in 1810 so the new is nice.
I will post some pictures of our set up after it is all done,complete with our new spot for milking!

Sweet Girl

Thanks for all the suggestions on a name for this little girl.
I just keep going back to one because she is so sweet and her mom came from a dairy named Sweets...I have named her Sugar.



Sugar is doing very well.
I have milked Ginger down once a day because the calf could no keep up, Ginger had one teat the calf hadn't even drank from until today .
We have a little jug of colostrum milk in the freezer which may come in handy to save a future life.
This has been a great week watching Sugar and Ginger.
Sunday we will milk for the house for the first time ever!
What a wonderful life!