Yurt Explosion

Do not worry. Nothing in the Yurt has exploded, nor the Yurt itself. However, the popularity of the Yurt as a rental has been exploding. Since the first day we offered the Yurt as a B'nB it has been occupied every weekend except Valentine's weekend (odd considering most of our clientele stay for a romantic weekend...). Even better news is that weekends are booked through the middle of May!

For reservation information, or just to "take a gander" visit AirBnB.com! You can see pictures as well as what dates are still available if you'd like to come stay!

Remember: Never Let Your Toddler Bathe Themselves in Hydraulic Fluid.

I apologize for this tangent, however:

Does anyone else wonder how we got to the point that warning labels like this one are necessary? Why would this bucket be stored near where a baby would be anyway? Talk amongst yourselves.

The Seeds are sprouting!

Martha has been hard at work getting her garden started! Every winter starting in February, Martha gets her seeds in order to get a jump start on the season. After all, the plants don't grow themselves! (At least not the plants we want to eat.) Here are some pictures of her first sprouters for 2011!

Berries Galore!

Many years ago, this was the site of the vegetable garden. It made sense for it to be here for Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Jeanne when their house was the only house on the property and just up the hill. Since then the vegetable garden has been relocated closer to the (now) main house and this area had been forgotten and overgrown. I was given the task to use the bush-hog and clean it up again!

Now, I wish I had taken "before" pictures, because then it would be more evident the amount of sheer destruction that was necessary to get this area looking the way it does now. The berry patches to the right were planted before I got here, so the goal was to rescue them and lose all the rest. MAN! Wild blueberry and blackberry bushes had moved in and taken over! Wild berry plants aren't the best because they're incredibly invasive, hard to control, HUGE, have more thorns than just about anything, and yield a tiny amount of fruit given the amount of landscape they take over. The wild plants were choking out the berries we had planted and want to keep. The thick thorny stalks of the wild berry bushes were taller then the tractor! I kept losing my hat and catching my clothes on all the thorns and getting smacked in the face by the branches caught on the tractor...it was a lively experience. I'm glad to report that I've survived the ordeal. Haha! Now the remaining berry plants we wanted to keep have been replanted and are enjoying their un-compromised sunlight!

Turkey Pen!

Back in February, we constructed a turkey pen in the barn to keep the turkeys contained during breeding season. It's not uncommon for wild turkeys to entice our birds to join them. A few of our hens went missing in this manner last year, so this is an attempt to prevent that from happening again. We love our flock and want to keep them! So, ta-da!! Here's the pen pictured on the right! So far having them in the pen wasn't very exciting for the birds. They'd rather spend time on top of it rather than in it, but it's for their own good. As mentioned in a previous post, soon we'll be collecting the eggs laid and incubating them! We'll keep you abreast of all the happenings!

Just Incredible Pictures!

Here are some pictures taken at sunrise during this passed winter. They haven't been photoshopped or enhanced at all. It's a true testament to how beautiful it is up here on the farm. I found them on the family computer and was definitely impressed. Now, I just need to find out who took these shots so I can give them the proper credit they deserve! The morning light is amazing on the ice covered branches!

Down for the Hatch

We're very excited this year to be able to hatch our own birds! Now that we have an established group of laying hens, we can collect the eggs laid and encourage those eggs to develop into chics by incubating them. Here's how it's done:

Chicken eggs have an incubation period of 21 days. It's very important to make sure the eggs get rotated during incubation. 180 degrees every 24hrs is sufficient. Not only is temperature important, the humidity is a very important factor as well.



A few days before the expected date-of-arrival for the little chics, the eggs are taken out of the containment rack and placed on metal mesh at the bottom of the incubator. This insures enough room for the baby chics to squirm around and the metal mesh allows the waste to fall through so the birds aren't lying in it. Also at this time the humidity is increased and the temperature slightly adjusted.

PREPARE FOR THE HATCH!!

Fresh out of the egg!

All tuckered out after fighting the shell, it's not unusual for the chics to nap right away.

The duration of the hatch depends on how many eggs are incubated. It's a good idea to leave the hatched chics in the incubator for a period of 24hrs in order to let them dry off and learn how to move around on there own before putting them in a separate container. As the chics hatch, it's a good idea to remove the shells and other debris inside the incubator.
When it comes time to move the chics, the most important step is introducing them to the water and food. Simply dip their beaks into the water, and then in to the food dish. They can figure it out from there. Also, a lamp to provide warmth is VERY important! At first the lamp should be as close as possible to the chics to keep them warm, and as they grow older move the lamp away until it is no longer needed.


Here's their temporary home! Soon they'll be headed down to our new bird containment area in the barn!

Cute little guys.

Next we'll be incubating Goose and Turkey eggs. Stay tuned! It will be a busy Spring!

Surgeries & Recoveries

As most of you may know, Whitt had surgery back in January.

We are INCREDIBLY PLEASED to announce that his surgery was 100% successful!!!!

Whitt's health is back to where it should be and we couldn't be more proud of him. Thank you so much to everyone for your love and support from the beginning. We are all so relieved to have that chapter of our lives behind us. A toast to the future!

Cheers for good health!