Barns and Bubbles

With the help of Mr. David, Ian made great progress on the new donkey barn today.  After nine long hours of hard work, the barn went from roofless to a completed roof!

A seriously big "Thank You" to David for the long day of labour, the sturdy ladders and for doing the highest roofing work (since Ian is afraid of heights).

The boys worked hard today too. Grandma Cora's "bouncing bubbles" were successful at keeping Liam and Seamus occupied as we waited for Daddy to be ready to sit down to a delicious anniversary dinner of pot roast deer and cupcakes.

Another busy day but a very productive one.

Non-Stop Action

I know lots of young families have busy weekends.  We are no exception but in the autumn they just seem to be so much busier than during the rest of the year.

This morning we divided and conquered.  The boys and I were responsible for the animal chores, housework and laundry.  Ian went goose hunting and brought home meat for the freezer.  By mid-morning we had reconvened for the Beavers' Apple Day to raise money for the Stittsville Food Bank.

Seamus helped out by being an excellent apple buffer.
He takes his job as Beaver-in-training very seriously.

We then went our separate ways again.  The boys and I were scheduled for afternoon naps.  Ian, with the help of Mr. Steve, was back on barn building duty.  We are happy to report that we now have four walls and roof trusses!  Thank you Steve for your help this afternoon.  We anticipate lots of progress on barn construction tomorrow.

After a family dinner, animal and toddler bedtime routines, and frost-proofing the gardens, Ian is busy cleaning the geese, Grandma Cora is cleaning the kitchen and I am cleaned out.

I had to dry out all my frost-proofing sheets after they got soaked by this afternoon's rain storm.

Seamus and I covered up our winter gardens.

Is it that pathetic to be in our jammies and ready for bed at 7:30 pm?

Dog-Tired After a Beaver Gong Show

At 24 weeks pregnant, I am tired at the best of times.  Tonight I am exhausted.

Liam's Beaver activity for this week was a tour of Malak's hobby farm.  Yes, you guessed it, Malak is Ian's Beaver leader name.  The kicker though, is that Malak is currently in Washington DC on business.  This left me, Malak's right hand woman, to host two dozen five and six year olds plus their parents.  In fairness, I could have played the pregnancy card and opted out but I was pretty sure I could handle it.  What could go wrong, right?

Honestly, on the whole it went well.  We rotated though five farm "stations" that I had set up.

#1 Feeding the lambs corn and oats.
#2 Making the chickens' "bed" by spreading hay on the coop floor.
#3 Feeding Charlie brussels sprouts leaves.
#4 Cutting marigolds and zinnias to make farm bouquets.
#5 A mock honey bee hive inspection with cut comb honey tasting.

The Beavers had fun; one kid even told me at the end that this was the best night of his life.  High praise.  At least nobody got bitten this year.

The farm animals went crazy with all the excitement.  Martha tried to escape into the great beyond (through the open garage door) twice.  Mellie got into the box gardens and chowed down on carrot tops like it was her last meal on Earth.  We lost one brown chicken in the madness (I found her later).  Charlie was the worst of all.  She was so riled up that she would not go into her barn after everyone left.  She absolutely refused to walk on her lead across the yard to her night time paddock.  I finally just dropped her lead and let her get it out of her system.  In the pitch black she bounced around the backyard like a bucking bronco on crack.   We ignored her.  While the boys and I were occupied chasing errant chickens into the coop (also in the pitch black), Charlie eventually meandered to her paddock and I was eventually able to entice her into the barn with a combination of soothing words (aka veiled threats) and extra grain.  Holy cow (beaver?) - what a gong show.  Needless to say, the boys were still up at 8 pm and both were wired after all these farm escapades.  

The only ones who missed out on the action were the dogs.  The last thing I needed was Charlotte escaping for a cross-country expedition or Emily getting loose and attacking a chicken in front of the Beavers, so the dogs got left inside the house.

After all the excitement was over, I dragged my thoroughly exhausted self upstairs to find Charlotte like this.

I think she might have sympathy exhaustion.

Got Worms?

Got parasites in your poop? We do. Well, some of us anyway. Last week I collected fecal samples from our farm animal groups (donkey, sheep, goats, lambs). Seamus and I dropped them off at the vet for testing.

Internal parasites are a leading cause of death in livestock (Maggidans 2018). Parasitic worms lay eggs, called oocytes, which are passed out through the feces (Christensen 2015). We can determine what types of parasites an animal has by examining the feces which contain the microscopic eggs (ibid). The overuse and misuse of chemical dewormers has made parasites very resistant, so that routine all-herd dosing with dewormers is not effective nor advised (Maggidans 2018). In addition, different parasites respond better to one class of wormer than another (Christensen 2015). So, to keep parasites in check, we monitor egg counts by doing routine fecal exams and then tailoring a treatment to the animals that need it.

Our test results came back today. The goats and adult sheep are clean. Charlie, however, had a high count of 300 eggs. According to our vet, it is best to keep equines below 200 eggs, so she will need to be dewormed. The lambs also had a high count of 850 eggs. It is typical to deworm ruminants when they measure between 500-1000 eggs. Molly, Lego and Cobalt also have a dose of dewormer in their future.  The vet is going propose a treatment plan and we will pick up the required medications shortly.

I've got worms?!  EW!

Fecal testing is admittedly kind of gross and but it is an important part of keeping our animals healthy and preparing them to over-winter as successfully as possible. Isn't there some old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure?

References

Christensen, K. (2015). The Biology of the Goat. http://www.goatbiology.com

Maggidans. (2018). Know Thine Enemy Fecal Testing Kit and Supplies. http://www.maggidans.com

Sugar Rush

As a beekeeper, I often hear that people find locally produced honey to be expensive.  I cannot even tell you how many times I have heard local prices compared to what honey costs at Costco.  These price comparisons do not particularly bother me as we have many loyal customers who appreciate our honey  and keep coming back for more.  However, it is during autumn that I am always reminded of why local honey costs what it does.  Keeping bees is expensive!

At this time of year, most beekeepers are busy feeding their bees to help them prepare for winter.   The rule of thumb in our area is that each hive needs two deep boxes (or 120 lbs) of honey to feed themselves until spring.  To help the bees, we feed them 2:1 sugar syrup made from white granulated cane sugar and hot water.  This serves as a nectar supplement that the bees can convert fairly easily into honey stores.

 So yes, I am the crazy bee lady that buys eight 2 lbs bags of sugar weekly throughout much of September and October.  At $2 per bag, 2 bags per hive and 4 hives, I spend $16 per week on sugar.

In hindsight, I think it is hilarious that one of the reasons I decided to start beekeeping in the first place was to reduce the amount of white sugar we buy.  Why not produce our own honey instead, right?  I can honestly say that since becoming a beekeeper I have bought more sugar that I would have ever thought possible.  So silly.

I inspected my hives today and the honey stores in two of them are very good.  The other two hives have quite a bit of storage work to do over the next several weeks.  I will need to keep feeding for some time yet.  It looks like I am off to the store for more sugar.

A Howler of a Day

Following yesterday's extreme weather, we started today off without power.  Our hearts go out to all those who lost so much in last night's storm.  Luckily, we just lost electricity and a few tree branches.  The boys, unfortunately, were not so pleased with lack of night lights and hot dinosaur porridge that came with the power outage.  I heard more than a few howls of protest after serving them cold cereal in the dark on a cold morning.

Thankfully, these howls of discontent turned into howls of delight later in the day at the Carp Fair.  Seamus was thrilled to discover that his special squash won First Place!

This is his delighted face.  I swear.

The howls of happiness continued as the boys posed with huge pumpkins, rode the carousel, and devoured handfuls of cotton candy.

 

After an incredibly easy bedtime thanks to our five hours of fun at the fair, Ian and I headed outside to frost-proof the garden.  Midway through installing our box garden covers, we were treated to a cacophony of howling.  Howls were coming from three directions as the coyotes clearly had something important to say to each other.  In fear that this was something along the lines of "Hungry for sheep, donkey, goat, chicken or duck tonight?", I paused my garden prep and put all the animals to bed in their barns.  I then returned to complete the installation of our frost covers.

Our garden now looks a bit like a ghost motel but hopefully this will help our vegetables survive the frost that comes with temperatures dropping to 6 degrees C tonight and 3 degrees C tomorrow night.  It was only 11 degrees C when we headed inside after chores and our noses were already chilly.

It was a busy, busy day.  Luckily tonight our power is back on, our animals and gardens are protected, and everyone is tucked cozily into their bed.  I would howl with exhaustion to round out the day but frankly, I am just too tired.

Where's My Hoof?

Charlie and I tried out a new farrier today.  She did not take to her any better than to our usual one.  This is her "I'm not pleased" face.

At least Charlie is not sexist; she is just farrier-ist.  Cantankerous beast.

The Bachelor: Poultry Edition

With the departure of our old hens and our feisty young rooster Riker, it is Beemster's lucky day.  Beemster is our old mellow rooster.

His crow leaves something to be desired (it takes him about seven attempts to warm up enough to even get one feeble crow out in the morning) and he has absolutely no tail feathers to speak of.  However, he is so docile that he poses no threat to me, the boys or our half blind duck, Kate.  He also has the most beautiful comb.  It is with this roster of strengths and weaknesses that Beemster has been thrown into a dating/mating game of every rooster's dreams.

Our 13 young hens are now housed in the "big girl coop" along with Beemster, the ducks and the goats.  So, without further ado, let's meet some of our contestants in Gael Glen Farm's version of The Bachelor: Poultry Edition.

We have Whitey.
She loves long walks on the back deck, eating grape leaves and munching on carrot tops out of Liam's garden.

We have Spotty.
She may be a bit flighty but loves free ranging, exploring and digging for bugs.

Lastly, we have Brownie.  Brownie is a friendly hen who is always looking for adventure.
You can often find her enjoying the view from the highest possible perch.

Now admittedly, we have 13 hens: four white ones, four spotted ones, and five brown ones.  It is impossible for me to tell the hens of the same colour apart.  I suspect it might be the same for Beemster, which would make wooing a particular bird problematic.  Luckily, there are no expectations of a monogamous outcome in The Bachelor: Poultry Edition.  In fact, spreading his affections around equally is highly encouraged as it reduces the likelihood that hens will experience loss of neck or bum feathers from too much cockerel attention.  The next few days should be interesting as Beemster makes his introductory rounds and moves on to the group dates.  Who do you think will get a rose?

Preparing for the Fair

Carp Fair weekend is one of the highlights of autumn in our community.  We love going to see the farm animals, checking out the rides, eating cotton candy, and meeting up with many of our neighbours at the fair grounds.  We also often submit some of our farm's produce in the fair's vegetable competitions.  While most of our produce was put into our CSA baskets this year, we did keep one very special vegetable for submission to the fair - a gigantic hubbard squash.

Much to our dismay, the first hubbard to grow in our garden got partially eaten by a chipmunk.

We cannot really blame him - it was an exceptionally delicious squash!

Luckily, a second one grew and we were able to harvest it before the chipmunk had a chance to make it into a meal.  This hubbard is huge!  Prize worthy even.

Seamus wheeled our special squash all the way to the registration desk at the fair and waited patiently while Mama got all the paperwork in order.

Then, our next door neighbour, Mr. George (a Carp Fair veteran) helped Seamus place his prize squash in the exhibition hall.

Now all that is left to do is wait for Saturday to see if Seamus' squash is blue ribbon worthy.  Even if it does not win, we are very much looking forward to eating this very special squash!

We Made It to Week 16

Our last CSA baskets for 2018 went out today.  Seamus helped me harvest and we were both very proud of the quality and variety of this last offering.  Today's baskets included: zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, kale, swiss chard, parsley, green beans, basil, mint, green leaf lettuce, arugula, radishes, carrots, beets, brussels sprouts, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, and a butternut squash.  There were also eggs and creamed honey.

I can now proudly say that Gael Glen Farm has successfully ran its first CSA program.  Preparing the baskets each week was time consuming but admittedly kept me committed to a regular schedule of harvesting and planting.  I really enjoyed that nothing from the gardens was ever wasted and I was not as overwhelmed by this year's bountiful harvest as I otherwise would have been.  It is amazing to think that our gardens fed three families for four months!  We also managed to can and preserve more than enough produce to get our family through the winter and I know some of our CSA families pickled or froze some of their produce too.  I plan to ask our families for feedback on our baskets and I am very much looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

Even though our CSA is over, our gardens are still going strong.  I hear, however, that a hard frost is predicted for Saturday night.  I will have to add putting up the cold frames over my three winter gardens to my to-do list.  I might also try covering some of the beans, broccoli, lettuce or zucchini in the big garden to see if I can extend their production a tiny bit longer.  It has been an incredible year for our gardens and I am eager to see how long into the autumn/winter we can keep it going.

You Picked ALL of Them?!

A good proportion of my food storage activities begin with conversations like this one:

Liam and Seamus: "Look Mom.  We picked the pumpkins for you."
Me: "You picked all of them?"
Liam and Seamus: "They were ready."
Me: "Uh huh."
Liam and Seamus: "Can we make jack-o-lanterns?"
Me: "It is the middle of September."
Liam and Seamus: "So...can we?"
Me: "How about we make pumpkin soup instead?"
Liam and Seamus: "YEAH!"

And so, there you have it.  Today was spent making four pumpkins worth of pumpkin carrot soup.

What toddler doesn't like scooping out the goop?

Roasted pumpkin seeds are a crowd-pleaser in this household.

Too bad all these fancy colourful carrots got pureed into soup.

They may be pretty but the plain orange ones are actually sweeter.

We ended up with 8 one litre jars of soup.

After I finished making the soup, I googled how long to pressure can it for and realized that pumpkin soup should not be canned at all.  Apparently it is too thick to guarantee that the heat gets rights to the middle of the jar and it is not acidic enough even if you add lemon juice to rule out botulism.  Ugh.  So, now I have 8 jars of soup in the freezer that we were reserving for the 1/2 hog that we are picking up from a neighbour three doors down tomorrow.  It is going to be one crammed freezer!

Barn Raising Day #2

Lots more progress today...

I would like to extend a gigantic "Thank You" to Bruce who came back again today bright and early to help out.  Not only that, but Bruce brought his awesome son Wyatt, who was so skilled at occupying Liam and Seamus that I even got some free time to work on harvesting, housework, and garden clean up.  Thank you Wyatt!  Another huge "Thank You" to Glendon for helping all afternoon.  Working together Ian, Bruce and Glendon got three of the four walls up as well as the piece over the door.  It looks so good!

Ian and I are incredibly grateful for the help we have received with this undertaking - from the planning advice to the construction assistance.  We have never built a barn before and thanks to a few special people willing to share their time, expertise, and strength, we are closer than ever to making this happen!

A Sweltering September Saturday

We got a heck of a lot done on the farm today in spite of the sweltering temperatures.  Today was Day #1 of Donkey Barn construction.  Ian and Bruce worked from morning to mid-afternoon in the oven-like weather with hardly a complaint, despite Ian sweating through at least four shirts.

Meanwhile, the boys and I deconstructed part of the vegetable garden.  We ripped out all the tomato and cucumber plants and bagged them for the compost.

After an exhausting day and putting two hot and grumpy boys to bed, I was at a loss over what to do with the farm animals.  At 6:30 pm, it was still 28 degrees Celsius outside.  It seemed cruel to put the poor animals inside the stifling hot barn, yet I could not leave them outside past dusk for fear they would become the coyote's next meal. The only solution I could think of was to sit out with them until it cooled down a bit.

Now, anyone who has lived on a farm knows that it is next to impossible to "sit" outside.  There is always something that needs doing.  So, I grabbed the wheel barrow and shovel and started mucking the animal barns.  *I am well aware that mucking the barns is on my list of no go pregnancy activities but if you won't tell Ian, my doctor, or my mother, then I won't either.*

The thing with mucking barns is that it varies by season.  In the winter, mucking is difficult because anything wet freezes into an ice chunk.  In the summer, it takes next to no time for the barn to become overwhelmed by a suffocating ammonia smell and no matter how often you muck, maggots seem to spontaneously appear underneath the first layer of poopy hay.  Summer mucking is not for those with weak stomachs.  Luckily I have good, sturdy rubber barn boots, a long handled pitch fork, and a stomach of steel, so barn cleaning does not phase me in the slightest.  I actually enjoy it.  The smell of sweet, clean hay spread on the barn floor is quite lovely.

It was a busy end to a very busy day.  Our new barn is underway, we are halfway through our garden clean up, and the barn mucking is finished for another week.  Now if only this sweltering summer heat would fade into crisp autumn temperatures, then we could really be productive!