Help Save Tsuki!

Our 4 year old hound mix Tsuki needs your help! She is in need of surgery to remove her left rear leg. She was found last Tuesday wrapped up in a wire fence, and despite our best efforts to save her leg, the tissue damage is too severe. The surgery is going to be more than we can afford, so anything helps! We can't imagine life without her. She is already so fortunate to have been found alive, and wants to keep fighting! She is such a good spirited pup, and we love her so much.

Visit our donation page to make a contribution in any amount below to help save Tsuki. Thank you so much!

Tsuki Surgery Fund

 http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=12532&url=helpsavetsuki

Welcome Back

Hello all! After a very lengthy absence, I am back from my journey abroad. I have traveled just shy of 11,000 miles through the lower 48 states in seven weeks, and have never been happier to be home! Needless to say, there is an overwhelming amount of stuff that has happened in my absence. I'm going to do my best to get all caught up. In the meantime, enjoy this adorable video of one of our lambs chasing the geese. Yes, the lamb is new; and yes, an introduction is due.

Barn Awning

        We're always looking for more ways to make our animals more comfortable. All of the renovations we've been working on recently have had that end goal in mind. One great feature about our barn is that the entire south facing side is completely open to the outside. This is ideal in the summer and really allows the air to flow freely through the barn helping keep down mold and mildew, as well as keep our animals cool. However, in inclement weather the open face of the barn can prove more of a problem. We set out to devise a plan to help keep water, snow, and cold out of the barn during rainy and/or wintery weather.

Here's what we came up with!

        Healthy goats and sheep can handle the cold very well, however it's the wind that can cause the most harm to an animal trying to stay nestled for warmth. The tarpaulin is the perfect (and inexpensive) solution. Not only does it keep the wind from whipping through and chilling the livestock to the bone, but it keeps horizontal rain and snow drifts out as well. It was important to make sure the outside wall design was modular so we didn't lose the best aspect of the barn in the warmer months, but durable enough to withstand the mountain winters. A simple pulley system allows the tarps to be rolled up, essentially turning them into huge blinds. We're pleased with the design and the barn stays much warmer now even on the coldest of nights. The water containers are frozen less frequently than before. Feel free to click on the above pictures for a more detailed look at the tarp and pulleys!

HAPPY LEAP DAY!!

        Happy leap day from CPE!! We can't wait to see the changes from now until February 29, 2016!! Thanks for following our progress, and remember your input is always welcomed and valued!

        Cheers to four more years!

Coop Swap!!

We've recently swapped coops!  Here is what our old chicken coop looked like, we used five gallon buckets as the laying nests for convenience and ease of cleaning. The chickens seemed to like them too!

You can see the wall on the back of the coop was painted by Martha, trying to use up some old house paints. I think that the chickens enjoyed the murals, maybe we can do it again in the new space this spring!

However, our flock has grown and we are anticipating it continuing to grow during this summer. So, we've re-worked our horse stalls as part of the overall barn remodel to become the new coop for our laying hens, turkeys, and guinea hen. You can see the direct access that the birds have outside through the small doors in the barn wall. We close these up every night to keep them safe from outside predators.

You can see some different nesting boxes on the walls in this picture. We still used the five gallon buckets for other nesting boxes and those are located along the opposite wall to these boxes.

 The new coop is four times the size of the old one which really gives the birds some more room to move around. We tried to make the transition between coops as low stress as possible, but unfortunately right after the initial swap, our egg production dropped down to a mere few eggs a day.  We were worried about this drop and started trying to figure out how to increase the egg production in other ways. Luckily all that the chickens seemed to need was time. After having two or three weeks to become accustomed to the new space, the eggs are booming! We get about two and a half to three dozen fresh eggs a day!

Here are the chickens enjoying their new space!

Barn Remodel

        We've been busy in 2012! It's only February and there has already been SO MANY things added to our to-do list, gotten underway, already completed, or soon to become project numero uno. One top priority was the barn. It was in desperate need of a good organizing and ultimately a remodel to best suit our and the animal's needs. Unfortunately, I did not have the forethought to take some "before" pictures prior to picking up the hammer and having at it, so enjoy only the "after" shots.

        Moving in the direction of having goats and sheep as our primary herd animals, it was necessary to build pens for them. We also don't want to only accommodate the animals we have currently, but allow for expansion and have a place to put little ones, interim goats b/w the time they are born and the time they find a new home, and any other animals we may need a place for. Accommodating the animal's needs is one thing, but we also need the barn to suit our needs for storage, influx of livestock, ease of feeding and watering, and ultimately easier upkeep and ability to keep the barn clean. We decided to go with a lane design for the barn. Essentially this just means that an aisle is set right down the middle of the barn with animal pens on each side. This way when it's time to clean, we can muck everything into the center lane and then scrape it all out at once as opposed to having to hand shovel and wheel barrow every last bit of manure and used bedding. Our barn was already set up perfectly for this design since it has two big bay doors that open on the west facing side.

Here you can see the lane that goes straight back to the sliding bay doors.
Each pen has two doors into the lane. Each door can be opened into the lane
and secured to create one large pen from the front to the back of the barn
allowing for even more flexibility in the use of the barn!

Eglantine and Rosie happy in their own pens!

Here is the milking pen, which also doubles as our birthing pen
since it has better lighting mounted directly over head.

Two additional pens on the backside of the barn.

Here are the two bays used for tractor implement storage.

Here are two bays being used for hay storage.

A look down the lane from the opposite side of the barn.

We've added gravel to the backside of the barn. Soon this whole area will have a roof
over it for the dual purpose of covering our processing area, and allowing for storing
our tractor out of the elements. For the time being we store the tractor in the
barn by the hay storage.

The Boys Are Back In Town

        Our three boys have been busy! Last fall we let The Damon out with Eglantine and Rosie to see if he couldn't do his duty as the herd sire. Turns out, he accomplished the task!

We're proud to announce that Eglantine and Rosie are both pregnant with TWINS!!

        We didn't have The Damon breed with Kikki or Eva. Kikki was still weening Eva at the time, and Eva is much too young to have kids. Even though she is physically able to have kids, there are a lot of complications associated with a tiny goat getting pregnant. So to be on the safe side, we kept Kikki and Eva inside on the big day.

The Damon: proud soon-to-be daddy goat!

Sammy: excited to have more (hopefully) does around.

        The jury is still out on whether or not Star has been living up to his potential. The only things we've seen him mount are the Gator (a six wheeled farm utility vehicle), and the walk behind mower. We're hoping he's just very secretive about the deed and isn't really into mechanical objects only. Time will tell! Soon we will give a call to the vet to have some ultrasounds taken.

Starlight

Starlight

   

        For the passed several months, we have been graced with the presence of Starlight! Star (for short) is a beautiful championship pedigreed Lincoln Longwool English Ram decsending from 5 generations of champions. He was about 8 months old when he arrived to our farm all the way from Ithaca, NY. Our friend Malou Stark purchased Starlight at the Maryland Fiber Festival in May and they immediately bonded. After purchase, Malou drove to NY to pick him up farther upstate along the Canadian border in a small town called Brennan where he was brown. We've brought Star to our flock to breed with our ewes! If all goes well, we will be expecting lambs in the spring!

 

      Starlight's only visiting our farm for a short time, so if you haven't had a chance to meet him yet, come on up for a visit! I know you'll find him to be the most pleasant ram you've ever met.

Thanksgiving: In Review!

    Thanksgiving this year was a fun-packed weekend-long undertaking filled with incredible food, awesome friends and family, warm fires, and merriment. Whitt and Martha had the usual suspects up for Thanksgiving dinner aside from Grethcen and Austin. Unfortunately they were unable to make it up from Asheville, NC.
    The meal consisted of three (yes, three!) of our turkeys prepared in different ways. Two birds had been brined by Mia and Martha prior to cooking: one in a water and salt mixture, the other in a mixture of water, milk, salt, and various spices. The third was relatively untouched prior to cooking. The idea behind brining is that the salt and liquid mixture will coat the skin and form a protective coating that holds in the moisture of the bird while being cooked with minimum basting required. The two brined birds were grilled while the third was cooked as normal in the oven. Howard and Whitt spear-headed the grilling of the turkeys.

Howard sprinkling on some magic.

A couple swipes of goodness...

And viola!

Whitt and Howard talking about the boring view.

In goes the bird!

Annie doing one last nose check before the lid is closed to make sure it smells good.

     According to all present, every bird was unbelievable, but the grilled birds where exceptionally good. Of course the birds were merely the center piece to the meal. All of the sides and desserts were also, as normal, incredible.

Hunting

    As most of you may know, it is hunting season here in Virginia. For you hunters, it's the season for waking up early, stocking the truck with bullets and beer, and sitting in a tree for hours and hours on end. For us non-hunters in the middle of the action, the season consists of our loveable dogs bringing back all the pieces the hunters didn't want one disgusting piece at a time, and constantly being worried someone is going to shoot them. So, we have come up with an attempt at a practical, yet fashionable, way to help prevent buck shot from finding our dogs.

    Here we have Tsuki modeling a dog safety vest complete with a handy pocket for treats or anything else she wants to put in there. Actual dog vests run a surprising amount of money, so I just ended up making these with 97¢ human vests and a 47¢ spool of thread. Hurray for safety!

Get Your Turkey!

        Thanksgiving is on Thursday! If you don't know where your turkey is coming from, we have the solution!

        We still have a limited quantity of birds left that have not been reserved for the big day. All of our birds are heritage breed, grass fed, organic Bourbon, Narragansett, and Palm turkeys. Turkeys were processed on Sunday (11/20) and are sold un-frozen. It's as fresh as they come! 

        $5.50/lb --- weights vary.

    If you're in need of a last minute turkey, e-mail Cair Paravel at

CPARAVEL@GMAIL.COM with "TURKEY" in the subject line.

Remember to buy local and support small businesses this holiday season! 

Follow Us!

  Cair Paravel now has a twitter! Follow us @CairParavelFarm!

Consider it the addendum to the blog, the more day-to-day, the fun filled fact machine of the farm, the picture gateway, the...well, you get the idea. We'll also post news, available products and prices, as well as requests for help with certain projects. Become a bigger part of our farm with Twitter!

@CairParavelFarm

Herding the Flock

Down at the barn Mikey hears me call, "Sheeeep, here sheeep." He is always the first to come thinking he is going to get a treat!


Flora, resting in the shrubs this warm day decides to join... but maybe not...but sees Noelle ambling up with Mikey.


Noelle and Mikey realize they are going to the green pasture. The area around the barn has been nibbled to nubs so they are going out to the stockpiled fescue, red clover, and landino clover pasture. There is also browse for them along the meadow edges.



Mikey, of course was the first to get into the knee deep grasses however....



.....the rest did not lag behind! Herding this trio is not difficult. Just show them food and they will follow.

See how the great grazing has help the sheep produce fantastic fleece!

This is Mikey's long-stapled white locks...


....and Noelle's creamy brown that deepens into dark chocolate.! I am looking forward to working with the wool this winter.

Chicken Processing

Coming up this Sunday, November 13, 2011 the last 2011 chicken processing (plus a few roosters and some geese. If you want to help/learn come and join us. Set up will start at 9:00 AM.

Garry the Chicken

    We've acquired quite a few more birds here at the farm. A rather mixed batch actually; rhode island reds, marans, cochins, more barred rocks, orpingtons. Although new to our farm, nothing out of the ordinary as far as chickens go. Except Garry.

    We have no idea what kind of chicken he is. We actually thought he was a hen for a few months until we witnessed him crow in person. Not only is he tiny compared to our other birds, but he is the epitome of the "little man complex." He antagonizes our biggest, baddest rooster and actually wins! I honestly think it's because our top rooster is so surprised/bewildered it doesn't have time to come up with any other reaction than running away in shock. Please, if anyone has an idea of his breed, let us know!

 
And now for Garry's name-sake. He is only the second chicken that we have named. The first was "Big Dude," who is in fact a big...dude. Really the only reason why we named Garry at all is because of his incredible likeness to our good friend Mara's dog Garry. The similarities in Garry the chicken's behavior to Garry the dog's were so uncanny that Mia and I came to the same conclusion while watching him one day. We literally looked at each other at the same time and said, "IT'S EXACTLY LIKE GARRY!!!!"

 

Here is a shot of Garry (the dog)in all his glory. We hope one day they will meet

and become best friends.

Goat For Sale, Trade, or Barter

CPE needs a new home for Samuel! Samuel is a very happy and healthy purebred Nubian buck born July 6th, 2011. He has been de-horned and will soon be ready for breeding.

What we are looking for:
      -outright sale of Samuel for a price TBD
      -trade for other livestock (i.e.-goats, sheep, turkeys, et cetera)
      -a mutually beneficial trade of breeding services
      -establish a network between ourselves and another goat farm


We would love to talk and work out some sort of deal that can benefit us and the buyer. We're more interested in starting a relationship with other goateries than a plain cut and dry exchange of money.

    If you would like more information, please contact us through e-mail at cparavel@gmail.com.

Eva Update!

 I'm pleased to inform little Eva's leg has healed beautifully! For those that may not remember, she broke her leg a few weeks after she was born and had to hobble around with a cast. Now the cast is off and her leg isn't giving her any issues at all!

 

Tomætoes, Tomátoes

    Martha has picked the last of the tomatoes before the gardens are switched to fall/winter mode. With the nights getting colder, and ultimately the day's temperatures catching up, that means it's time to break out the green house structures for the raised beds and move as much as we can into the affixed greenhouse off of the lower apartment. I've been working on tilling all of this years plants into the soil to decompose and nourish the ground. As a good way to end the time of year that the bulk of our veggie production slows down by sharing some pictures of the different tomato varieties we grew this year.

    Our tomatoes were good to us this year!