Coyote Foiler

How do you foil a lamb-eating coyote?  There are two ways:

#1 A Really Excellent Barn Door

#2 A Donkey

While we have had no lamb-eating coyote problems yet - thank goodness - you can never be too careful.  Ian made us an absolutely beautiful door for our barn so we can lock our sheep in safe and sound at night time.  He is so incredibly handy and talented.

I am working on the donkey front - stayed turned...there may be a donkey in our future.

All Flights Have Been Grounded...Indefinitely

Since we cannot monitor Emily's antics 100% of the time, we have gone on a wing feather clipping bonanza.  This morning everyone of the avian variety got a wing cut to curb all unauthorized flights out of the coop.  Hopefully this will eliminate any future Emily-chicken mishaps.

So many feathers we could stuff a pillow!

 Our sick hen, who has been named Rebecca, is still in sick bay.  She is sitting up on her own and is awake and alert.  All good signs.  We will continue to monitor how her wounds heal over the next few days.

Man Down

Actually "hen" down is more accurate.  It has not been a good afternoon.  After finishing work I came down to play with Liam and Charlotte and found myself wondering where Emily was.  Emily is always looking to be the center of attention so to find her missing in action is never a good sign.

A quick look out the window into the back yard confirmed my fears.  One of our new brown hens had flown the coop and I could see Emily towering over her.  I hefted Liam on to one hip and went charging out into the yard but, alas, I was too late, the damage had been done.

A sad sight: hen feathers littering our yard.

Now we know what Emily will do if she is able to catch a chicken.  As horrible as it is, she will eat it alive.  It is not a pretty sight.  I scooped up the injured bird and carried her in one arm with Liam in the other back to the house.  It is a terrible feeling knowing one of your animals has been badly injured and you were not able to protect them.

I then had to decided what to do with her.  Ian was busy in an important work meeting and I had no idea what would be the most humane course of action - so I made an executive decision. I disinfected her wounds, sterilized a needle and thread and stitched her back together.  I then slathered on the Polysporin and put her to rest in a crate in the mudroom.

I have no idea if she will live.  I think she might be in shock and understandably so.  I guess we will reassess in the morning.  I do not know if I did the right thing.  I am not sure how resilient chickens are but I figured we would never cull a human if all they needed was some stitches so maybe a bird just needs the same chance to bounce back?  I don't know.  Like I said, it was a bad afternoon.

Hop(s) To It

There are four mandatory ingredients to the delicious beverage we know as beer: water, barley, yeast and hops.

Here on Gael Glen Farm we grow two types of hops that Ian uses to home brew beer: Cascade hops and Centennial hops.

The hops vines get cut back in the fall during harvest time and the blossoms are removed, dried and vacuum packed for use in future brewing.  In the spring, new buds sprout from the plant's roots and before we know it, the hops vines are growing like crazy.  If not properly managed these wild velcro-like vines get all tangled together in an unruly heap.

Before

Our solution is to provide the hops vines with ropes to climb up.  The ropes are attached to the top of our clothesline posts and work perfectly to guide the hops up, up and away!

After

After

You need to look hard to see the guide ropes in the after photos but they are there!

An Ovine Recovery Mission

We are the proud (well...I am very, very proud; Ian has yet to be convinced) owners of three beautiful Shetland sheep.

Thrilled - can you tell?

Not convinced - can you tell?

Yesterday Dad and I went over to Wolfe Island near Kingston to purchase my very first hobby farm-sized flock - a mama sheep (called an ewe) and her two three-week old baby lambs, one ewe lamb and one ram lamb.  We are still debating on names so I will introduce our new additions properly once a decision has been reached.

Shetland sheep are technically dual purpose animals (wool and meat); however, if you know me at all, you will know that these lovely beasts have found their forever home.  There will be no lamb chops here!

Lots of lamb.  No chops.

They survived the two hour car ride home like troopers.  I can imagine that it is not particularly fun being stuffed in a dog crate (on loan from my brother) lined with straw inside a UHaul trailer bumping up and down on the 401 highway.

Grandma, Liam and our Shetlands.

We stopped to check on them at the halfway point when we turned onto the 416 highway and you should have seen the stink eye the ewe gave us.  She was not impressed!

Yikes!  That is quite the look!

Upon our arrival we attached a dog collar and leash (on loan from Charlotte - their necks are the same circumference) to our ewe to "lead" her gently down to the barn.  Yeah, right.  She was having none of it.  Dad had to pick her up - all 70 lbs of her - and carry her like a huge baby from the trailer to the barn.

Ian and I had no trouble carrying the lambs.

Though there was a lot of "baaa-ing" - I am not sure we want to know what they were saying!

The sheep did not stay in the barn long at all.  Lickity split they were out in the paddock munching grass and exploring their new surroundings.  It was funny to watch:  step, step, munch, chew, swallow...step, step, munch, munch, chew, swallow....step, munch, chew, chew, chew, swallow....and repeat.

As expected the lambs stayed close to their mother and at dusk they all voluntarily put themselves to bed in the barn.  What more can you ask for?  I have the best sheep ever.

I am a shepherdess - how cool is that?!  Ovines are devine!

A Floral Explosion

While we work on recovering from our jet lag, we are busy appreciating spring time on the farm.  To Ian's dismay and the honey bees delight, the dandelions are out in full force.

Similarly, the majority of our spring flowers are in bloom and they are gorgeous.  Our front gardens look like a cross between a botanical garden and a country meadow (because of all the weeds).  haha - only so many hours in a day!

Note the coexistence of tulips and dandelions - not intentional, I assure you.

A Blooming Good Time

Our newly pruned apple trees are in full bloom.  Beautiful isn't it?

Our un-pruned pear tree.  I thought this tree was male and so have never pruned it.  After some research, I do not think there is actually such a thing as a male pear tree - they are all bisexual.  Who knew?!

A Few Cluck-worthy Additions

As our daily egg yield has continued to decrease, we have decided it is time to add a few feathery friends to our aging flock.  Instead of opting to raise day old chicks this year (they are a ton of work and boy, do they stink!), we are experimenting with a more cost effective (and much less time consuming) alternative - ready-to-lay hens.  We purchased a dozen 20 week old Lohmann Brown hens from a farmer on Kijiji and it is time to pick them up!  These hens are the most common type of chicken used for commercial egg production laying farms in Europe.  Luckily ours will have a much nicer life here on Gael Glen Farm than their poor European cousins.

Our new ladies are big enough to be incorporated directly into the main coop with our existing flock.  Ian picked them up last night and in the dark of night we introduced them into the coop.  Doing the hen amalgamation at night reduces the chances that the new birds will be harassed by the older, bigger hens.  Everyone just goes to sleep and in the morning it is like they have always been there.

Most of the new hens have not yet ventured outside.  They were raised exclusively inside and so this is the first time they have the opportunity to free range - they are working up the courage to experience the great outdoors.  

Lohmanns begin to lay at about 18 weeks, laying about 1 egg per day and up to 300 eggs a year.  We picked up a lot of cute little brown eggs off the coop floor today.  The new girls are relatively inexperienced layers and many have not yet managed to find the nesting boxes.  I am sure this will come with time.  

Lohmann hens are known to be very friendly and are good chickens to keep as pets for children - an added bonus for sure.  Welcome little brownies to your new home at Gael Glen Farm, we are happy to have you!

We're Back!

 It is great to go on an adventure to visit far off places but it is always nice to come home again.  After an exciting few weeks in Bergen, Norway and a whirlwind weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark - Ian, Liam and I are happy to be back on the farm.  We missed Charlotte, Emily, Avery and everyone else.  We'll get back to the happenings on the farm with tomorrow's post but for today I thought I would share some photos from our adventures away.

Liam was ready for a grand adventure.
Whether Mama and Papa were ready is another story entirely.

Our trip had a bit of a rocky start.  This is best illustrated in an excerpt from an email we sent to our families upon arrival in Norway:

"They misplaced Liam's airplane dinner but we brought lots of food so it was okay.    He slept for about an hour on the plane so we were thankful for that.

Things began to go downhill after that. There was a miscommunication between the Air Canada and Scandinavian Airlines ticketing systems that resulted in Liam not being issued a boarding pass for the second and third legs of our journey. We had to stand in line at the service counter in Frankfurt for over an hour while the airlines sorted it out.

We celebrated getting everything sorted with a Bavarian soft pretzel. We gave a piece to Liam who partially choked on it and subsequently vomited (copiously) all over himself and his stroller.  After clean up (disgusting) we gave him a sippy cup of water to rinse his mouth which he proceeded to sip and then spat (repeatedly) all down the front of his clean, dry sleeper.

He slept soundly all the way to Copenhagen where we exited the plane to a mysterious smell (never good). Liam had explosive pooped which had leaked all in his third sleeper of the day. About a hundred wipes later we arrived at the check in counter only to realize that the carry on bag that they checked at the gate at the last minute in Frankfurt because there was no room in the overhead bins for it contained our boarding passes for the Copenhagen to Bergen leg.  It was a huge fiasco to get new boarding passes because apparently even our old boarding passes (in our checked suitcase) were incorrect and didn't indicate that we had an infant traveling with us. Even though Liam was given a boarding pass; apparently the confirmation number on the pass was invalid.

It took forever (at least 40 iterations of The Bear Went Over the Mountain and lots of wailing and sad baby tears) for the airlines to sort everything out. We were the last people to board the plane and had to sit separately.

We arrived to pouring rain in Bergen and the revelation that my suitcase had been lost in transit..."

However things improved after a good night sleep and some very, very, very expensive Norwegian food.

Liam got lots of practice eating in a restaurant like a civilized human.
Here he is carefully assessing his meal options.

Liam: "I love Norwegian cuisine!"  His favourite item was peppered mackerel.  Seriously.

Liam practicing his snuffleupagus snort at breakfast.

Not a picky eater. Yum - shrimp!

We saw lots of cool stuff...

Mama and Liam in Bergen city center.

Mama and Liam at the top of Mount Ulriken.

Papa and Liam at the top of Mount Ulriken.

Liam savouring the amazing view
(aka trying to climb over the guard rail and down the mountain).

Papa and Liam saw even more cool stuff while Mama was working.

Liam at the top of the Fløyen Mountain.

Liam "hiking" with Papa on the mountain top.

Liam on the ferry heading out to the fjords.

Papa, Liam and the Norwegian fjords.

A Liam and Papa selfie.

Too much fjord excitement.

Liam getting his exercise up the hotel staircase.

Mama and Liam at a castle in Copenhagen.

Papa and Liam in Copenhagen.

Mama and the biggest cotton candy EVER at Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen.
This is just before it started to pour sheets and sheets of rain.  Wet cotton candy is not good.

On the whole an excellent trip but I'm still glad to be home!